Police lineup upset victim of stabbing

The victim of a vicious stabbing outside Chinook Centre 18 months ago became emotional and upset when he picked his attacker out of a photo lineup the following day, a city police detective testified on Tuesday.

Det. Greg James said [the accused’s] demeanour was fine through viewing the first group of 10 photos, but that changed when the 10th and final photo was presented to him in the second group.

The photo he selected was of [the accused], 27, now on trial for attempted murder, aggravated assault, possession of a weapon dangerous to the public and two counts of assault with a weapon.  He was charged after [the accused[ and friend were pepper sprayed and [the accused] was stabbed on Dec. 29, 2005. The co-accused’s brother, who [the victim] said “looked familiar” in the first set of police photos, and [the accused] also face the latter four charges relating to the incident in the mall parking lot outside Chapters book store just after 7 p.m.

“He said ‘this is the guy who stabbed me, this one got me with the knife, that’s him, that’s the guy who wanted to kill me,” [the detective] told Crown prosecutor Roy Smith during a voir dire (trial within a trial) to determine the admissibility of the evidence.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Rosemary Nation later ruled the evidence would become part of the trial, despite vehement opposition by defence lawyers David Chow and Brad Popovic. Chow had questioned [the detective] about not making any notes or recording the conversation regarding the lineup, but the officer said the digital recording did not work at the time. Nation said she allowed the evidence on the police lineup to be included as the victim had been asked about it when he was on the witness stand and it corroborated his statements.