A B.C. Supreme Court Justice has found a man guilty of second degree murder in the stabbing death of a woman in her Kitimat home.
In reaching the verdict for Tyler Scott Eli, Justice Robert Punnett rejected defence counsel's argument that the accused was too intoxicated to form the specific intent necessary to be convicted of the charge.
Punnett found Eli had consumed 10 to 20 ounces of alcohol and had also been smoking marijuana, prior to entering the home of Maria Teresa Rego and her husband, Gualter Manuel Rego, during the early morning hours of Oct. 9, 2011.
But Punnett also found Eli was an experienced drinker and police did not notice any signs of excessive intoxication at the time of his arrest. There was also no evidence that the marijuana he had smoked was extraordinarily strong or laced with other drugs.
Intent on hurting or killing someone, Eli, then 19 years old, snuck through an open window of the Rego's Turney Street home, retrieved a knife from their kitchen, entered their bedroom where the couple was asleep and stabbed Maria Rego to death.
Attempting to stop Eli, her husband ended up in a violent struggle that proceeded down a hallway, into a bathroom and then into a second bedroom before Rego was able to barricade himself in the master bedroom and call 911 shortly before 7:30 a.m. while the intruder left the house.
Eli was arrested a short time later and admitted he stabbed two people in the home. He also told police that a few weeks before he saw the movie Kill Bill and thought the attack on the Regos "was going to be like a movie in the sense that he would get away with it." Eli picked the home because he did not know anyone in it, Punnett said in his reasons for judgment.
The nature of the attack and the wounds suffered showed Eli intended to kill, Punnett concluded, and also found him guilty of attempted murder for the attack on the husband, who was grievously injured.
Had Crown been unable to prove intent to kill beyond a reasonable doubt, Eli could still have been found guilty of manslaughter and aggravated assault. For a conviction of first degree murder, Crown would have had to prove Eli's act was planned and deliberate.
Punnett's verdict was reached Nov. 5 and posted online this week. A sentencing hearing is set for Jan. 29 in Terrace.
