Peter Kingwatsiak trial: Witness says accused said he'd shoot victim

The murder trial against an admitted Cape Dorset killer began this week in Iqaluit. Peter Kingwatsiak is charged with first degree murder for shooting his stepbrother, Mappaluk Adla, in 2010. He's also charged with breaking and entering and committing an aggravated assault.

The trial hinges on whether Kingwatsiak had intent when he shot Adla in the forehead in his own home, without provocation, with a .22 calibre magnum rifle. Kingwatsiak has already admitted to the killing.

He claims he was high at the time because he was sniffing gasoline, and his lawyer James Morton is arguing the charge should be downgraded to manslaughter.

Kingwatsiak also admitted to slashing his uncle in the face with a knife just before the shooting, which brought on the breaking and entering and committing an aggravated assault charges.

The homicide is alleged to have come out of a jealousy Kingwatsiak held over a friendship Adla had with Kingwatsiak's ex-girlfriend, Geena Lampron. According to numerous witnesses in the agreed statement of facts, Kingwatsiak allegedly expressed jealously in the days leading up to the shooting, as well as after it, when he confessed the shooting to a friend.

No indication of lack of intent, says opening witness

On Monday, prosecutors Amy Porteous and Barry McLaren called forensic psychiatrist Dr. Philip Klassen as the Crown's first witness. Klassen was hired by the Crown to assess Kingwatsiak for a little more than six hours over two days in 2012.

In his report, presented to the court, Klassen said he wasn't able to conclude Kingwatsiak lacked the capacity to form intent when he killed Adla.

"The available information to me doesn't lead me to believe that there is anything of a psychiatric defence available here that would mitigate issues having to do with intent," Klassen said.

In the agreed statement of facts, Kingwatsiak's best friend noticed he was jealous and very mad that Lampron was hanging out with Adla at a dance at the local community hall, two days before the shooting. Later, after the dance, Kingwatsiak saw Adla with Lampron in town and threatened him with a .303 calibre rifle.

"Mr. Kingwatsiak described his relationship with Ms. Lampron as the relationship he considered to be the most significant or most important that he had," Klassen testified, later adding after threatening Adla in front of Lampron, and the subsequent rejection by her the day after, Kingwatsiak became very distressed to the point of sleeplessness, and had self-deprecating, shameful and even suicidal thoughts.

"He wrote a suicide note. He was feeling very hopeless. He felt like his chances of a successful outcome with Ms. Lampron were gone," Klassen told the court.

In cross-examination, Klassen reiterated another part of his initial testimony, noting Kingwatsiak has had a hard life.

"Mr. Kingwatsiak has faced many adversities in his life in Cape Dorset. I think it's fair to say, like other young persons in communities that have some struggles, Mr. Kingwatsiak has had some significant losses and has been insufficiently attended to," Klassen said.

"We know there was conflict between his parents, there was substance use in his family, his parents separated, he experienced the loss of his sister to suicide, he experienced the loss of his younger brother to an accidental shooting."

Klassen also told the court Kingwatsiak tried to commit suicide when he was 12 and 14 years old.

But despite his troubled past, Klassen concluded Kingwatsiak appeared to be reasonably resilient. And during cross-examination Morton pointed out Kingwatsiak had no criminal record and his teen years were "essentially unremarkable."

Accused allegedly expressed desire to shoot victim

On day two of the trial, Mappaluk Adla's older brother, Etidloi, took the stand. Etidloi testified that a month before his brother was killed, he allegedly heard Kingwatsiak say "he was going to shoot Mappaluk one day."

Etidloi told the court he was on a beach getting ready to go on a fishing trip with a group when he heard the alleged statement.

But later in the day while at a campsite, Etidloi alleges he heard Kingwatsiak say something equally as worrisome.

"We were just shooting at rocks that were sticking out of the water, and just as I was about to walk away [Kingwatsiak] whispered [to a friend] saying he was going to shoot at a rock and pretend it's Mappaluk's head," Etidloi told the court.

"I was sort of worried, I guess. It's something you don't hear every day."

During cross-examination, Morton referenced a statement Etidloi gave the RCMP a month after his brother's death, where he made no mention of Kingwatsiak shooting at the rock, pretending it was Mappaluk. It wasn't until the second time Etidloi spoke with police when he informed them about the incident.

"About a year after you spoke with [the RCMP], you told [them] about the shooting at the rocks. That was the first time you told them about the shooting at the rocks," Morton said, to which Etidloi agreed.

"So you heard Peter Kingwatsiak say that he wanted to shoot your younger brother, and you didn't do anything about it?" Morton asked, later asking if it's fair to say Etidloi wants Kingwatsiak convicted of murder, to which Etidloi agreed.

Adla's mother broke down weeping in the courtroom after her son's testimony.

More witnesses to be called

The Crown also called Peter Kingwatsiak's uncle, Manu Kingwatsiak, to the witness stand Tuesday afternoon.

He testified to the facts surrounding the aggravated assault, where Peter was in his home, slashed him with a knife and also tried stabbing him. When Manu asked his nephew why he slashed him, Peter replied someone told him to do it.

Manu testified that he didn't smell any alcohol, drugs or gasoline on his nephew — although Klassen previously testified Peter allegedly sniffed gasoline before going to his uncle's.

In cross-examination, Morton brought up Manu's statement to the RCMP following the incident, where he told police his nephew was out of character and he thought his nephew had an evil spirit in him.

The Crown is expected to call a friend of Peter's Wednesday, who's flying in from Cape Dorset.

Morton is also expected to call three witnesses, including his own forensic psychiatrist, a toxicologist and the accused.