VANCOUVER -- Warning: Disturbing content
People inside a Vancouver courtroom for a high-profile double-murder trial spent their day watching screens Friday. And they'll be doing the same when court reconvenes on Monday.
They were watching the eight-hour police interview of Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam, who is facing a first-degree murder charge in the violent deaths of a Vancouver couple.
Richard Jones and Dianna Mah-Jones were killed in their Marpole home in Septmeber 2017. Kam has pleaded not guilty.
This video is being played in a voir dire, which is like a mini-trial within a trial, to decide whether or not it should be entered into evidence.
The defence wants the video entered as evidence, arguing it may be an example of Kam operating as though he’s in a fantasy or game. His lawyer has told the court Kam spent 10 to 15 hours a day playing video games and reading fantasy comics. The Crown argues the interview video doesn’t speak to Kam’s state of mind at the time of the murders, because it took place several weeks after the killings. Crown also says there’s nothing in the video to indicate Kam was in an altered state.
Justice Laura Gerow has ruled the entire video will be viewed before she makes her decision.
The police interview took place more than a month after the bodies were found staked in their bathroom shower. In the video recording of the interview, Kam is seen sitting in a small Vancouver police interview room with blue walls and a small table. He’s wearing a purple hoodie and blue shorts. A detective is seated across from him.
At one point early on in the interview, the detective says she’s going to walk him through the evidence they have against him.
“There’s a big mountain in front of you,” she says, urging him to speak. “There’s a lot at stake for yourself in terms of your future.”
The detective asks him about a hat found at the scene.
Officer: “Have you ever owned a hat like that?"
Kam: “I have nothing to say.”
Later, she asks him about a hatchet found at the scene.
Officer: “Let’s talk about that axe.”
Kam: “I don’t want to talk about it.”
Not getting an answer here either, she turns to a pair of gloves.
Officer: “How about those, have you ever seen those gloves?”
Kam: “I have nothing to say about that.”
The court has already seen surveillance video of Kam buying these items at a Canadian Tire store. He has also briefly taken the stand to give his account of what happened on Sept. 26, 2017. He testified he was in the couple’s neighbourhood that day, and saw Mah-Jones unloading groceries from her car. He told the court he forced his way into their home, and stabbed her with a pocketknife. He has also testified he attacked Jones in the kitchen, stabbing him and then using the hatchet. He told the court he ended up putting the couple’s bodies in the shower.
But, during the police interview, Kam says nothing. He repeatedly tells the detective “I have nothing to say” and “I don’t want to talk about that." He asks when it is going to be over, occasionally saying, “I’m bored.” At times he laughs while giving an answer and says it’s a “coping mechanism."
The officer asks him why his DNA was found at the scene.
Officer: “Your DNA is underneath her fingernails”
Kam: “I have nothing to say.”
Officer: “What’s your explanation?”
Kam: “I have nothing to say.”
The detective also questions him about his family, asking if he loves them, if he was mistreated as a child and what he’d like to say to them. The detective also steps out briefly because, she says, his brother is on the phone. Still, Kam stays quiet.
Photos and files are spread out across the table, and at one point officers put photos of the victims and their evidence on the wall around him.
The detective refers to the couple, calling them elderly.
She asks Kam whether he’d had a fight with Jones, saying she’d heard from neighbours he wasn’t a nice guy and “he had a problem with alcohol.”
Officer: “Did you ever meet him? In the street or at the shopping mall or anything like that?”
Kam: “I don’t want to talk about that.”
Then, the detective asks him about Mah-Jones.
Officer: “I don’t think you meant to hurt her, I think she was unexpected to you.”
Kam: “I have nothing to say.”
The video has not finished and will resume when the trial resumes on Monday.
