The body of Ryan Edward Hibbs was found only a few metres from what once was the most famous music stage in northern B.C.
The Salmon Valley Music Festival was once an attraction for tens of thousands of fans who came each year to see the likes of Waylon Jennings, Alabama, Tanya Tucker, Pam Tillis and many other international stars. The event eventually went bust in a hail of controversy leveled at the site's owner, Gerald Pattison. Once it ended he converted the palatial platform they played on into a house. It was just outside the front door, what was once the backstage entrance for the festival's stars and support staff, where police found Hibbs shot to death on night of Oct. 17, 2008.
Pattison was soon the subject of a murder investigation and the trial in this matter got underway on Monday in B.C. Supreme Court at the Prince George Courthouse.
A jury of six men and six women gathered alongside Madame Justice Heather Holmes, where they will be for the next five weeks. Crown counsel Shannon Keyes plans to call 18 witnesses and spend the morning preparing the jury and those in court about whom she will interview under oath.
The first and so far only witnesses so far was RCMP Sgt. Al Steinhauser who was, at the time of the incident, a senior member of the Forensic Identification Unit at the Prince George detachment.
This unit took "in excess of 600 photographs," said Steinhauser on the witness stand, including aerial images taken from the RCMP's helicopter, some of which were presented in booklet form and on-screen for the jury.
Steinhauser also discussed the forensic processing of Pattison who, upon his arrival in police cells that night, had a bloody wound near his left eye that required dressing by ambulance paramedics. He also had blood spattered on his hands.
During the course of the trial, information will be discussed by experts and witnesses to try explaining the various points of the incident. Pattison, who sat in the defense box wearing a brown and black jacket trimmed in Aztec fringe, shook his head at several points in Keyes's description of what happened, from the Crown's point of view. Their side of the case will continue to unfold today.
Pattison is represented by defence lawyer Rob Climie.
