Selena Lomen faces trial in 2018 Fort Liard stabbing death

Close neighbours were the first people on the scene after the stabbing death of Danny Klondike in Fort Liard, N.W.T., two years ago.

It happened on the night of a Halloween party in the town of 500 people. 

Klondike's partner, Selena Lomen, 23, was initially charged with second degree murder. In an agreed statement of facts filed with the court Monday, she admitted to manslaughter.

Her trial began in Yellowknife Monday with prosecutors playing recordings of calls to the RCMP. 

Francine Kotchea, who lived next door to Klondike and Lomen, was the first to call. 

In court Monday, Kotchea described being woken up by loud noises in the early morning hours of Oct. 28, 2018. When she heard loud banging on her own door, she opened it. Lomen, she said, was standing on the porch covered in blood.

"She told me to call the health centre because she'd stabbed Danny." 

Kotchea said Lomen then told her she was going to tell Danny's mother what had happened, and disappeared. 

Kotchea's common-law partner went next door to check it out. He came back carrying Lomen and Klondike's baby, whom he handed to Kotchea to look after. He also told Kotchea that Danny had "passed away."

Questioned by Lomen's defence lawyer, Kotchea said she'd told police that Lomen had been under the influence of alcohol.

"If she wasn't under the influence of alcohol she wouldn't have stabbed Danny," Kotchea said.

Two other witnesses lived in the other half of the duplex where Kotchea lived. They too were woken up by the banging on the door.  

Robert Duntra, still in his house slippers, also went to Klondike's house to see what was happening. He found Klondike just inside the doorway in a pool of blood. He checked for a pulse and found none. 

Duntra got his truck keys and drove to the home of his father — Klondike's uncle — to tell him the news. He then returned to the house where other Klondike family members were already gathering. 

"I just stood there with the family members," Duntra said. Then, he said, he went home and broke down in tears. 

Lomen, who was 21 at the time of the stabbing, cried as she listened to the testimony. 

Prosecutors entered some 500 photos into evidence, as well as information gleaned from a handful of personal electronic devices. The trial is expected to last three weeks. 

Four more witnesses are set to testify Tuesday, one of whose testimony was delayed from Monday because a South Slavey interpreter called in sick.