A man convicted of two murders earlier this year is back on trial, accused in the death of a 29-year-old woman.
Dillon Ricky Whitehawk, who is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Keesha Cree Bitternose, has pleaded not guilty and elected to be tried by a judge alone.
Court has heard Regina police found Bitternose dead in a home in Regina on Jan. 5, 2020.
CTV reports that Const. Todd Strueby testified as the Crown’s first witness Monday.
He says he was one of the first officers on the scene and found Bitternose with two visible stab wounds, including a large, open wound on the side of her abdomen.
Const. Curtis Warnar, a member of the police forensic identification unit, also testified, saying that DNA on a balled-up glove found on the victim’s face matched Whitehawk’s DNA.
Warnar said there were large amounts of blood near the woman’s body.
Graphic photos taken at the scene were not shown to the public in court. However, Warnar described the images, testifying that Bitternose had trauma to her face, right shoulder, stomach and back.
Swabs taken of blood found throughout the house matched Bitternose’s DNA, Warnar testified.
Court heard that Strueby was dispatched to 1571 Cameron St. after someone had called about seeing an unresponsive woman through a window of the house.
Officers entered the house through the front window, Strueby said, after no one responded to their requests to open the door. They found Bitternose’s body inside near a back door.
Police did not find anyone else in the home at the time, Strueby testified.
The Crown is expected to call a forensic pathologist and civilian witness to the stand on Tuesday. Several officers involved in the investigation are also expected to testify over the next week.
The trial is scheduled for two weeks at the Court of King’s Bench in Regina.
Kelly Stonechild, who was previously charged with first-degree murder in the death of Bitternose, pleaded guilty last week to manslaughter.
Kurt Thomas, a third accused in the case, also pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison with credit for time served.
Whitehawk is serving a life sentence after he was convicted in April of first-degree murder for the shooting deaths of Keenan Toto and Jordan Denton. The men were killed in separate drive-by shootings in late 2019.
During that trial, the court heard that the shootings were motivated by Whitehawk’s desire to rise in the ranks of a street gang.
