Pathologist testifies about fatal wounds in Vancouver Starbucks stabbing case

The trial for the man accused of second-degree murder in a stabbing at a downtown Vancouver Starbucks continued with a pathologist's testimony Wednesday.

Warning: This story contains details readers may find disturbing.

On Wednesday, the trial for a man accused of second-degree murder after a stabbing outside a downtown Vancouver Starbucks heard graphic details from the pathologist who conducted on autopsy on the victim.

Paul Stanley Schmidt, 37, died on March 26, 2023, after initially confronting the suspect about smoking on the café’s patio. Police arrested Inderdeep Singh Gosal outside the coffee shop within minutes of the deadly interaction.

The court has already seen store security video of the physical confrontation between the two men. It shows Schmidt entering the patio and walking directly up to Gosal. The two immediately begin to fight and the struggle lasts about 25 seconds.

When it is over, Schmidt is on the ground in a pool of blood.

Pathologist Dr. Eric Bol testified about examining six stab wounds on Schmidt’s body while conducting an autopsy.

Bol told the court one of the wounds pierced Schmidt’s heart, while another to the neck injured his jugular vein and his trachea.

Bol testified the jugular vein carries significant amounts of blood from the head back to the body. He also said a stab wound to the trachea may impact an individual’s ability to get adequate air into the lungs.

Bol described the injuries as significant and life-threatening.

“If this was the only injury to the body, it still may have been a fatal injury just on its own,” Bol told the court, adding that the four other stab wounds caused injuries that may have been survivable on their own.

A duty nurse from the Vancouver police jail also took the stand on Wednesday.

Merideth Benningfield does not directly recall her interactions with Gosal while he was in custody in the hours after his arrest almost three years ago, so she testified from notes she made at the time.

The notes show Benningfield accessed Pharmanet, the province’s central pharmacy database, to learn what medications, if any, Gosal was on.

She discovered he had prescriptions for managing diabetes.

According to Benningfield’s notes, when she first interacted with Gosal, he had bags over his hands that were placed there by police to preserve potential evidence.

The nurse asked Gosal if she could use his toe pads to check his glucose levels and he agreed.

Benningfield testified that according to her notes she administered a dose of insulin.

Under cross-examination, Gloria Ng, one of Gosal’s lawyers, asked the nurse about a pair of other medications on the defendant’s Pharmanet history that were dispensed on Feb. 24, 2023—about a month before the deadly confrontation outside the Starbucks.

Ng suggested they are anti-psychotics primarily prescribed to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and depression.

Benningfield testified that in her experience at least one of the drugs can also be used to treat insomnia.

Ng then asked Benningfield if she knew whether Gosal had been taking the medications as prescribed in the month leading up to his arrest.

Benningfield testified she had no knowledge of him taking, or not taking, the medication.

The trial has been adjourned until next week to give lawyers a chance to review 6,000 pages of documents relating to Gosal’s medical history.