Lawyers for the Crown and defence have both made their final submissions to the jury in the second-degree murder trial for the man accused of murdering Tori Dunn in her Surrey home on June 16, 2024. Wednesday afternoon Justice David Layton began reading the charge to the jury, which is a final set of legal instructions before they can begin their deliberations. The Crown accuses Adam Mann of stabbing Dunn in her own living room with a large kitchen knife during an alleged home invasion. Dunn would later die in the emergency room at Royal Columbian Hospital. Mann, 42, has pleaded not guilty and took the stand in his own defence earlier this week. In his closing statement, Crown lawyer Tim Livingston replayed a video shown earlier in the trial. It is a compilation of surveillance video from homes and businesses in the Port Kells neighbourhood of Surrey that shows Mann walking along streets in the area before and after Dunn was killed. In the minutes after police received the 9:49 p.m. 911 call about the stabbing, the video shows Mann removing a grey sweatshirt while walking down the street. Police would later find a grey sweatshirt, a large kitchen knife and Dunn’s missing cellphone discarded in the neighbourhood. Livingston also summarized forensic evidence provided by witnesses earlier in the trial. The jury heard the victim’s blood was confirmed on the blade of the knife and her DNA was confirmed on the sleeve of the hoodie. An RCMP forensic analyst had earlier testified that Mann’s DNA was a match to samples found on the knife’s handle, the interior neckline of the hoodie and on Dunn’s cellphone. On the witness stand earlier this week, Mann testified that he had been homeless at the time and habitually used crack cocaine, including on the evening Dunn was killed. He said he had been riding a transit bus in the neighbourhood when he got in a fight with another passenger. He told the court he got off the bus in the unfamiliar neighbourhood because he was worried someone would call the police. In summarizing Mann’s testimony, his lawyer Paul McMurray reminded the jury his client had testified that he discarded his hoodie because he was concerned the police were looking for him in connection with the altercation on the bus. In his testimony, Mann told the court while wandering in the neighbourhood he was looking for a place to hide while also keeping an eye out for another bus stop so he could continue his journey to Scott Road Station. He said during that time, he noticed the kitchen knife at the side of a road and picked it up to examine it. Realizing it had blood on it, he said he tossed it away. He said he also found Dunn’s cellphone and picked it up thinking he might be able to sell it for cash – but when he heard sirens in the area, he discarded the phone as well because he was worried it might be stolen property and didn’t want police to find it if they arrested him for the fight on the bus. “Mr. Mann is a black man in what looks to be an upper middle-class neighbourhood. He’s a drug addict. He’s a man that doesn’t look like he belongs in the neighbourhood. So, yeah, he’s trying to avoid being arrested,” McMurray told the jury. The court has heard that Mann is of African and First Nations descent. Earlier in the trial, an officer with the Surrey Police Service testified about taking Mann into custody about 18 minutes after the 911 call about the stabbing. Speaking for the Crown, Livingston told the jury Mann’s evidence was not believable. “The Crown says you should reject almost all of his evidence from the time he says he got off the bus until the time he was detained,” he said. “The phrase ‘I don’t know’ was a frequent visitor to his testimony particularly when he was asked to provide details about what happened.” It will now be up to the jury to determine whether the Crown has proven its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
