'Is that funny?': Accused killer clashes with prosecutor at murder trial
Killer claims he doesn't know why he was at the home of couple he slaughtered in cold blood
A killer's chuckle led to a tense moment of confrontation Wednesday between a Crown prosecutor and a man on trial for slaughtering two people in their Vancouver home.
Seconds after prosecutor Daniel Mulligan pointed out that — despite Rocky Rambo Wei Nam Kam's claim he had no plans to kill anyone on the evening of Sept. 26, 2017 — the 29-year-old left his home with a backpack containing two knives, a hatchet, gloves and a baseball hat.
"And shampoo," Kam added, his smile turning into a grin as Mulligan began to ask another question.
The prosecutor stopped speaking.
"Is that funny?" Mulligan asked Kam.
"It's not funny," Kam replied.
But he said he couldn't understand why Mulligan seemed unable to accept his insistence he didn't know exactly why he found himself in possession of tools used to commit two killings.
"You can see that that would be pretty annoying when you suggest otherwise," Kam said.
"Well they're items that you used to kill two people," Mulligan replied. "That's why I'm suggesting it."
'I don't know why I killed'
The exchange came on the last of the three days Kam spent under cross-examination, capturing the dissonance between a prosecutor bent on proving two charges of first-degree murder and a defendant who admits killing Dianna Mah-Jones and Richard Jones but insists he never intended to do so.
At one point Mulligan asked Kam why he decided not to kill another woman — also a stranger — who he saw on the street immediately after leaving the Jones' house.
"Why is your DNA on this knife?": Watch as police interrogate Kam
Kam struggled to explain the difference.
"I don't know why I killed Mr. and Mrs. Jones," he said. "I don't know why I didn't kill the woman who just walked by."
Kam's defence lawyer plans to argue that his client was under the spell of a mental disorder that left him believing that he was functioning inside a violent video game when he killed 64-year-old Mah-Jones and 68-year-old Jones.
Originally from Hong Kong, Kam moved to Calgary with his family before arriving in the Lower Mainland months before the killings. He claimed to have spent between 12 and 14 hours a day playing online video games and poring through internet fantasy comic books.
Battle over expert evidence
A psychologist is expected to testify about the alleged role of video games in Kam's consciousness on Friday. But the Crown intends to challenge the qualifications of the expert and the admissibility of "novel science" at the trial.
If necessary, prosecutors told Justice Laura Gerow, they will bring forward a psychiatrist of their own to rebut the evidence of the defence witness.
All of that testimony will happen within a voir dire — a kind of trial within a trial.
One of the cases the Crown will use to make a point about the use of "novel science" is a Supreme Court of Canada decision banning any evidence obtained through hypnosis from admissibility at criminal trials.
The second involved the exclusion of evidence purporting to determine a male subject's sexual preferences by showing him images and sounds of sexual activity, while monitoring reactions through a gauge attached to his penis.
According to Wednesday's testimony, Kam told the defence psychologist he didn't miss video games and comic books as much as he thought he would in the time since his arrest.
Mulligan also asked Kam whether any of the video games he played depicted torturing victims, cleaning up a crime scene or changing out of bloody clothes — all of which he said Kam had done.
Kam said that it might be more efficient to wear different outfits in some of the battles.
'It's just that simple'
The accused's demeanour varied little throughout his testimony.
Wearing a light grey shirt and black pants, he was escorted to the witness box by a sheriff each day, where he sat beside a translator who was only called into action a couple of times.
Although Mulligan only questioned Kam once directly about chuckling, the defendant smiled frequently and often apologized before saying he didn't understand a question or the logic behind the prosecutor's assertions.
He said he had thrown out his only jeans, a hoodie and a backpack because of blood stains. But he quibbled about the suggestion that his jeans were "soaked in blood."
And he insisted that he "woke up" in Mah-Jones' Kia Sol after driving the car randomly for 13 minutes following the killings.
But Mulligan carefully noted each of Kam's actions before and after the killings to suggest planning, accusing him of stuffing the bodies in a shower stall and turning on water to destroy DNA linking him to the crimes.
He suggested Kam left the house by the back door to avoid detection and then worked to "cover his tracks" by taking a convoluted route through the streets nearby and then throwing away anything that might tie him to the scene.
Through it all, the killer maintained a sense of bafflement, saying he couldn't recall specific thoughts or memories about Mulligan's allegations.
Why, for instance, had he chosen to steal Mah-Jones' vehicle?
"When I saw the car keys, so I used the car," he said. "Sadly, it's just that simple."
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