A Crown prosecutor told a BC Supreme Court judge in Prince George that Zain Xavier Wood scoped out 22-year-old Isabelle Thomas’s Alpine Village townhouse twice before executing his plan to kill her “in a swift and deliberate fashion” on July 18, 2023.
Wood was charged with first-degree murder more than a month later. He pleaded not guilty when the trial began Tuesday, Sept. 2.
Kristina King told Justice Michael Tammen that Wood, 25, left his home on Lalonde Road at 7 a.m. on the day of the crime and arrived outside Thomas’s residence via taxi, after a stop to withdraw money at a Scotiabank.
“He entered Miss Thomas's home through her unlocked front door,” King said. “He was inside the home for only 35 seconds, and within those 35 seconds, Mr. Wood stabbed Miss Thomas a total of 16 times in the presence of her six-year-old daughter and six-month-old baby.”
King said most of the stab wounds were to Thomas’s back and one of those wounds transected her cervical spinal cord in her neck, which would have resulted in instant quadriplegia and possible spinal shock.
There were also multiple stab wounds to Thomas’s front. The most significant, to the chest, pierced Thomas’s heart at the anterior ascending aorta.
“This wound would have resulted in rapid unconsciousness and death,” King said. “After killing Miss Thomas, he quickly left her residence and returned home.”
King said Crown evidence will include events of July 12, 2023, when Wood “lingered around the area” of Thomas’s home, and a second visit, during which Wood walked up to Thomas’s front door and disabled her doorbell camera on July 13, 2023.
King said witnesses will include two of the first Prince George RCMP officers on the scene, who will describe their initial observations of the scene, and a forensic identification services officer, who will describe his analysis of the scene.
Also testifying: a blood spatter pattern expert; pathologist; lead investigator; the constable who took a statement from Wood; an employee of Prince George Community Corrections; electronic monitoring data experts; Thomas’s neighbours; and Thomas’s intimate partner, who arrived home from work shortly after the first responders arrived.
The trial is scheduled for 23 days.
