Murder trial begins for man accused of killing Winnipeg Transit driver

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Jurors in the second-degree murder trial of a man accused of stabbing Winnipeg Transit driver Irvine Jubal Fraser viewed crime-scene photos and heard from the first witness Monday.

Wearing a white dress shirt and loose dark pants, Brian Kyle Thomas, 24, appeared before the eight-woman, four-man jury charged with stabbing Fraser, 58, multiple times outside a bus on the University of Manitoba campus just after 2 a.m., Feb. 14, 2017.

Thomas was picked up downtown by Fraser, whose last stop was at the U of M, Crown attorney Keith Eyrikson said in his opening remarks.

Thomas fell asleep on the bus and, at the end of the line, Fraser told him he had to leave. Thomas then asked him to drive him somewhere else, with Fraser asking him several times to exit the bus, before he “forcibly removed” Thomas, Eyrikson told the jury.

“You could say he could’ve acted differently,” Eyrikson said of the Transit driver. “But whatever he did, did not justify what happened to Mr. Fraser.”

The driver stopped the accused, who was angry and demanding to board the bus, from getting back on, the Crown said. Thomas spat at the driver, and when Fraser got off the bus, he was stabbed several times, Eyrikson said. “What happened outside the bus happened very quickly.”

The jurors will later hear from witnesses at the scene, including members of the public, U of M employees and another Transit driver.

They will view video recordings from on and off Fraser’s bus, the Crown said, and hear evidence from a forensic pathologist, as well as testimony from police investigators.

The first called to the stand was a forensic evidence specialist who took photos for the Winnipeg Police Service identification unit.

Patrol Sgt. Brian Neumann testified he got the call at home at 2:30 a.m. Before going to the scene, he met at the police station with other identification unit officers to review maps and prepare.

He was asked to first go to Misericordia Health Centre to take photos of a suspect, who had received some physical injuries, Neumann said.

Thomas was wearing a disposable suit, after police seized his clothing, and was sleeping on his side with his hands cuffed behind his back, Neumann told the jury. He had abrasions and dried blood on his left cheek, visible injuries to his arms and left pelvis area, scratches on his torso, an abrasion to his right knee, and dried blood in his right ear, the officer said.

Neumann said he arrived at the U of M campus at about 7:30 a.m., where police had rerouted buses and pedestrians away from the crime scene at Gillson Street and Dafoe Road West. He said he arranged for RCMP traffic services to take aerial drone photos of the area.

On the ground, the forensic specialist started locating evidence and taking photos, including shots of a pool of blood on the sidewalk outside bus No. 112, to which the front door was left open. Copies of a booklet of photos from the scene were shown to the jury Monday.

Inside the bus, Neumann photographed a white substance on the driver’s seat believed to be spit, as well as several Transit-placed cameras located on the bus. Outside, he photographed a black tuque retrieved from the scene nearby, and blood stains found past Alumni Lane and Freedman Crescent, along the path to the frozen river where Thomas had been arrested.

Neumann said the following day he took photos of Fraser’s autopsy in the morning, then went to the opposite side of the river bank to photograph the area as police had searched for the weapon used in the attack (none was found at the time).

On April 17, Neumann said he was called back to the area, where police had found a Henckels-brand kitchen knife near a tree in a grassy area. It was entered as evidence at Monday’s trial.

The trial resumes Tuesday, and is expected to last two weeks.

Members of Fraser’s family were in attendance, but declined to comment. A representative of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1505 was in the gallery, but no drivers in uniform.

Fraser’s slaying furthered calls for more safety measures to protect drivers. with advocates pressing city council to install safety shields on every bus in the city’s 600-plus fleet.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca