Moments prior to the arrest of a woman later charged with second-degree murder, she told a trial witness she had just stabbed someone.
Lindsay Scott is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Justin Mohrman, 29, as he was walking near Smithe and Homer streets around 8:30 a.m. on July 11, 2022 when he was stabbed.
Scott has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Crown prosecutor Brendan McCabe told the eight-woman, four-man jury and Justice Frits Verhoeven April 7 Scott admitted “she did in fact inflict the fatal stab wound.”
Further, he said, the knife belonged to Mohrman and that his blood was on the blade and Scott’s DNA was on the handle.
The two main issues before the court, McCabe said, is whether she intended to kill Mohrman or if she recklessly intended to cause him bodily harm knowing it was likely to cause his death.
Witness Scott Lethbridge testified April 8 that he was sitting outside the Vancouver Public Library main branch when a woman approached and sat down next to him.
“She said she stabbed somebody in the heart,” Lethbridge told the court.
He said the woman also talked about “14 dead babies.”
There was discussion about Lethbridge’s statement to police that the woman had asked for money to buy opiates. He later adopted those statements under questioning from defence lawyer John Turner.
Lethbridge described the woman as nervous and said he gave her $20 so she would go away.
“She started running,” Lethbridge said. “She pulled her pants down. That’s when the city police arrested her.”
Case overview
McCabe gave an overview of the case before calling his first witness.
That began with a number of admissions of fact that do not have to be proven in court, including the admission Scott stabbed Mohrman, the knife, the blood and the DNA.
Further, McCabe said, Scott yelled at and attacked another woman before the stabbing. That woman testified to those events.
It was shortly after that the woman approached Lethbridge.
Then, video showed a woman approaching Homer and Georgia streets. McCabe said Scott then exposed her buttocks and mooned approaching police.
Vancouver Police Department (VPD) Const. Gary Athwal was one of those officers.
He said Scott was uttering gibberish and yelling and screaming as she was taken into custody. He suspected she could have had some mental health issues at the time.
“She was not really understanding,” he said. “Miss Scott was looking through me of instead of at me.”
Under questioning from McCabe, Lethbridge, a volunteer at an addiction rehab facility, said he believed the woman was either under the influence of alcohol or drugs or had a mental illness.
VPD homicide detective Cameron MacKay told the court he was in the police booking area when Scott was being read her rights and charged. He said she told officers she wasn’t going to listen to them and turned her face to the wall.
“It was quite challenging,” he said.
