A man has been found guilty of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his girlfriend at Metrotown shopping mall in Burnaby nearly four years ago.
According to the judge’s verdict, Everton Javaun Downey stabbed 25-year-old Melissa Blimkie 15 times while in the mall parking lot on Dec. 19, 2021. She died in a nearby stairwell.
Downey had pleaded guilty to manslaughter, asking the court to consider evidence that he wasn’t in control of his actions.
“…his main position is that the Crown has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that he had the ‘specific intent’ to kill, a necessary element of second degree murder,” the judge said.
The judge disagreed.
“…on the whole of the evidence, I am satisfied that no reasonable doubt arises that Mr. Downey specifically intended to kill Ms. Blimkie or to cause her bodily harm that he knew was likely to cause death and was reckless whether death ensued or not.”
After the stabbing, Downey had wandered around the neighbourhood and interacted with various people before being arrested. He was released the next day, when he took a bus to Brentwood Mall and robbed a bank.
A warrant was issued for that offence, but he wasn’t arrested until five days later, on Christmas Day, after he approached RCMP officers in a Richmond parking lot and told them he wanted to turn himself in.