03-06-2025
Jury hears details about Pat Stay's fatal stab wound
CONTENT WARNING
Nova Scotia's deputy chief medical examiner told a Halifax jury that Patrick Wayne Stay died as the result of a lone stab wound, caused by a single-edged bladed knife.
Dr. Erik Mont performed an autopsy on Stay on Sept. 4, 2022.
The stabbing went through the chest wall between two ribs and into the right ventricle of the heart, he said.
The wound was on the left side of Stay's upper chest, and entered from left to right, directed toward the middle of his body, Mont told the jury.
He testified the wound was approximately 2.6 centimetres long and one centimetre wide, with an approximate depth of 10-to-15 centimetres or four-to-six inches
Mont said alcohol, cocaine and caffeine were all detected in Stay's blood at the time of the autopsy.
The results from the toxicology findings had no direct result or consequence regarding the cause of death, he said.
Stay's blood alcohol concentration was measured at 0.117 and the cocaine was reported at 62 nanograms per millilitre, but Mont added that it's difficult to assign a particular concentration for cocaine.
DNA analysis
Two other Crown witnesses testified virtually on Tuesday, including Walid Dabbour, a forensic DNA analyst in Guelph, ON.
He prepared six reports for the jury and told them an October 2022 report was based on five items he received from police for testing.
Those included a blood sample from Pat Stay, a swab collected from stairs at the scene, a hotel, a satchel belonging to Adam Drake and a sweater that Dabbour said belonged to another suspect.
The sample from the stairs found that blood was detected, Dabbour said, and been matched to a DNA sample of Stay. While it was not conclusive, he told the jury the odds of someone else with the same profile would be one-in-1,000,000,000,000,000,000.
The jury was told by a previous Crown witness that Drake and the people he was with left the club through a stairwell leading to a back door.
On the sweater that belonged to another man, Dabbour said there were two spots where blood was found; on the right sleeve and front pouch. The odds of the blood on the sleeve being from someone other than Stay are one-in-1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, he said.
On Drake's satchel, he said there were chemical indications of blood, but that absent of typical staining, 'there's a greater possibility that it's not blood.'
'I cannot provide the opinion that blood was present,' he testified.
The day ended prior to the conclusion of Dabbour's evidence, meaning it will continue on Wednesday.
Video witness
Lynne Fox, a forensic digital media technician with Halifax Regional Police, was the other Crown witness to testify on Tuesday.
She put together some video exhibits in the trial, including video timelines with surveillance footage, and an enhanced, zoomed-in copy of the stabbing itself.
Adam Drake is on trial for second-degree murder. He has pleaded not guilty. His lawyer, Michael Lacy, suggested it was difficult to determine what was happening in the video, to which the witness said it was in the original footage as well.
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