Adam Mann, 42, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the June 16, 2024 death of Tori Dunn.
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The trial of Adam Mann began in Surrey court on Monday, with the Crown telling the jury that Dunn was stabbed inside her Port Kells home after returning from a birthday dinner with her boyfriend on June 16, 2024.
The Crown said Dunn and her boyfriend were on a couch inside the home, where Dunn fell asleep, and that sometime before 9:45 p.m. an intruder entered and stabbed Dunn a few times, including in the abdomen.
Dunn’s boyfriend, Trafford Wace, testified that he and Dunn came home between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. after his birthday dinner at his grandmother’s house. He said they sat on the couch and watched TV before Dunn fell asleep on his shoulder.
Wace testified that he got up to use the bathroom, leaving Dunn on the couch with her eyes closed and the TV on. He said he came running when he heard Dunn screaming louder than he had ever heard before, telling the court he saw “a man, like, up against the wall with Tori in front of him,” and asking, “Who the f*** are you?”
Wace said the man turned and replied, “Oh shit,” and that Mann was wearing a grey sweatshirt, toque and sweatpants, and had stubble. Wace told the court he saw something shiny in Mann’s hand, and when he asked Dunn what happened she told him, “he f***ing stabbed me.”
Wace testified that he grabbed a knife, but Mann fled, and Wace called 911. He said he was tending to Dunn, who told him she thought she was dying, and that as he was on the phone with 911, Dunn became unconscious.
Surrey Police Service Const. Jay Mander testified that when officers arrived, Dunn was moved from the living room floor to the grass outside because it was unclear if the suspect was still inside. Mander told the court the victim had a “two-inch-long stab wound to her abdomen” and was conscious and flailing before she was loaded into an ambulance, and that she died shortly afterward in hospital.
Mander said Mann was found within half an hour and within one kilometre of Dunn’s home, and that he had been advised the incident was a homicide.
During the proceedings, Justice David Layton told the jury that Mann is of Black and Indigenous heritage. Dunn’s family and supporters filled half the courtroom on the first day of trial, and her father declined to speak outside afterward.
The Crown said it will call several witnesses, including police officers and a forensic pathologist. The jury trial is expected to last three weeks.
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