Jurors in Hamilton hear dramatic 911 call made moments after Peter Khill shot and killed Jon Styres
WARNING: This story contains graphic details and language that may disturb some readers
Moments after hearing a "bone-chilling" blast from a shotgun and seeing sparks fly in front of her home, Melinda Khill testified Wednesday she called 911 on a February night in 2016.
"Somebody's been shot … please hurry," the jury heard Melinda — whose name at the time was Melinda Benko — say on the call played for the Ontario Superior Court on Day 3 of Peter Khill's second-degree murder trial.
Her voice trembled and she struggled to catch her breath on the call. In the court room, she was crying while hearing the call again.
"There was somebody who was trying to steal the truck, and we just woke up to a sound … [My boyfriend] went out with a shotgun just because we were both scared from the noise we heard."
Her then-boyfriend and now-husband is facing trial after shooting Jon Styres at roughly 3 a.m. ET on his driveway on Highway 56, a rural part of Hamilton.
The 16-minute phone call, which includes Melinda and Peter, offered a glimpse into the emotions running through them that night.
LISTEN: Melinda Khill calls 911 after Peter shoots Jon Styres (Warning: Some listeners may find parts of the audio disturbing):
"I just did CPR for, for probably six or seven minutes and he's got nothing, no pulse," the jury heard Peter tell a dispatcher on the phone.
"He was in the truck with his hands up — and not like, not with his hands up to surrender, but his hands up pointing at me. It was pitch black, and it looked like he was literally about to shoot me, so I shot him."
The question Peter is faced with is why his reaction was to pick up a shotgun, go outside and shoot the 29-year-old Six Nations man instead of picking up a phone and calling the police.
"Why didn't you call 911?" whispered Jon Styres' family members as they sat and watched Melinda's testimony in court.
'I was in absolute shock'
Crown prosecutor Paul McDermott and defence lawyer Jeffrey Manishen asked Melinda about the night, moment by moment.
Melinda said she and Peter went to bed around 9:30 p.m. or 10 p.m.
Then she said she woke up to two loud bangs, one right after the other, in the middle of the night.
She said she immediately woke up Peter and asked him if he heard the bangs.
Melinda said she didn't know what the sounds were and whether they were coming from inside the house or not.
Then they heard two more.
That's when she said Peter got out of bed and walked around it to look through the window.
"'My truck lights are on,'" she recalled him saying.
Melinda said she was looking out the window and also saw the lights inside the truck from the dashboard on.
At the time, she thought she heard Peter go toward the closet, pick up his shotgun and load it before leaving the home through a backdoor.
She also said she had no idea how many people might be outside, but her eyes were "glued" to the truck.
At that moment, Melinda said she wasn't thinking about calling 911.
LISTEN: Peter Khill talks to dispatcher after shooting Jon Styres
"I was in absolute shock, I didn't know what was going on. Everything was happening so rapidly," she said.
"You just feel like you've been punched in the stomach and you're trying to catch a breath and understand what's going on," she said.
Melinda said she saw a silhouette of a person in the truck, but at that point Peter had already closed the back door behind him and headed toward Styres.
"I hear muffled yelling," she said.
What followed was a loud, echoing boom and sparks — which Melinda assumed was a gun.
That's when she said she reached for the phone by her bed and called police.
She said she was at the back door and saw Peter put the gun back in the house before going back toward Styres — the man he just fatally shot.
"He was in total shock," Melinda said of Peter.
Peter eventually spoke to 911 too, saying he only realized after shooting Styres that he didn't have a gun but appeared to have knives.
"I didn't want to lose my life," the jury heard him say on the call.
Melinda testified she turned on the front porch light and also jumped in the air on the grass to make it easier for paramedics and police to locate the scene.
'The area we live in isn't safe'
The court also heard Melinda describe two incidents a week prior that left her and Peter on edge.
She said Peter was often away from home for work and she was already scared of being home alone. They bought the house on April 27, 2015 — her birthday.
She described leaving home and staying with family or friends on weekends to avoid being in her home. She also said she'd keep all the lights off to try and make the home hard to see for any prospective intruders.
The week before the shooting, Melinda said she heard someone trying to enter the code to the keypad on the backdoor of the home during the day.
When she opened the door, she didn't see anyone back there. She said she thought she was losing her mind and didn't think to call the police.
The same week, Melinda, said it happened again — but this time under the cover of night.
Melinda said she was scared. "As a 25-year-old female, you can only imagine," she said.
Melinda said she made lots of noise and tried to sound menacing to intimidate whoever was out there. She said she opened the door again and saw no one.
After that, she said she phoned her mother for comfort. She said she didn't think to phone the police.
LISTEN: The full 911 call on the night Peter Khill shot Jon Styres
She told Peter about it when he returned from work and said he was also startled to hear it. They ended up changing the locks and said she thought the night Styres was in the truck, someone may have successfully broken into the house.
The court also heard Melinda has been on five medical leaves from work since the shooting.
She's currently on leave right now.
The trial continues Thursday.
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