‘16 different cut marks’: N.B. murder trial sees graphic photos of victims’ shirts

The fourth day of a double-murder trial in Saint John went forward on Thursday.

Warning: This article contains graphic content and images

A forensic identification officer has told a Saint John, N.B., murder trial that he counted 16 different cut marks in the T-shirt worn by the 10-year-old victim and 11 in the shirt worn by the 17-year-old victim.

Roman Kamyshnyy is accused of stabbing the two boys to death on Jan. 29, 2025. Kamyshnyy, 46, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder.

Det.-Const. James Smith, who has been on the forensics team with the Saint John Police Force for 11 years, took a number of photos of various pieces of evidence in the days following the murders.

“I observed large areas of a red-like substance on multiple areas of the shirt as well there were also what appeared to be cut marks to the shirt,” Smith told the 14-member jury, being presided over by Justice Darrell Stephenson, Thursday morning.

“In the [camera] shot I counted 16 different cut marks in that shirt.”

Smith was the first witness called to the stand Thursday by Crown prosecutor Elaina Cambell on the fourth day of Kamyshnyy’s double-murder trial.

It is alleged that Kamyshnyy stabbed the two boys – referred to as victims A.B. and C.D. to protect their identities – to death before allegedly attempting to take his own life with a nail gun to his head.

Smith was also the officer who took the initial photos of the accused when he first arrived at the Saint John Police Force detention centre shortly after 7:30 the morning of the incident.

Pictures shown in court show Kamyshnyy seated with a red-like substance covering parts of his face and beard. His yellow shirt was also covered, along with parts of his plaid pajama pants.

“He was not being responsive early,” Smith testified. “However, when police were there asking him to adjust himself, stand up a little straight, he would for the most part.”

Closeups of the sides of Kamyshnyy’s head were also shown to the court. In one photo a hole could be seen on the left side of his temple, just a little above and to the side of his eye.

The forensic identification officer was also present for the autopsy of both victims. They were performed at the office of the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service in Dartmouth, N.S., on Jan. 31, 2025.

Operating doctor details surgery

Dr. Najmedden Attabib, who performed emergency surgery on Kamyshnyy the day of the murders, also took the stand Thursday.

Before the Crown started questioning Attabib, the accused and the doctor shared a nod.

Attabib recalled meeting Kamyshnyy in the emergency room that morning.

“He was drowsy… not verbalising,” the doctor testified.

After a CT scan showed two foreign objects – later confirmed to be nails – in his head, Kamyshnyy was brought in for surgery around 11:30 a.m. The surgery to remove the nails took a little over two hours.

“They’re deep, they’re long,” Attabib told the court, adding the nails almost reached the centre of Kamyshnyy’s brain.

He gestured pushing his fingers together, saying the nails were almost touching one another inside Kamyshnyy’s head.

Both nails were lodged in Kamyshnyy’s temple on either side of his head. The right nail was removed first, then the left.

Attabib told the court the left nail was bigger than the right.

One of the removed nails was shown to the jury during previous testimony from Saint John Police Force Det.-Const. Pam McInnis, who was present at the hospital before, during, and after the surgery.

Attabib said he has had no further contact with Kamyshnyy after he was discharged from the Saint John Regional Hospital at the end of March 2025.

Jury shown photos of knives

The court was also shown dozens of pictures of the apartment taken by Sgt. Robert Chesser, who took the stand to detail the photos.

At the time of the murders, Chesser was working in the Saint John Police Force’s forensics department.

The photos shown in court cover almost every section of the apartment. Many of the pictures showed what appeared to be a reddish substance.

A photo of the nail gun used by Kamyshnyy was also shown.

Other photos showed knives that appear to match a knife block that was missing three knives shown in the kitchen.

One picture taken by Chesser detailed a letter written and signed by Kamyshnyy dated Jan. 27, 2025, that reads, in part:

“To Canadian Officials… My name is Roman Kamyshnyy, and I’m fully responsible for this situation.”

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