A trial has begun this week at the Nanaimo courthouse involving a shooting at a Bowen Road home nearly a year ago.
It was early on Dec. 9, 2022, when someone went into a duplex at 2377 Bowen Rd. and shot Jerome Jules with a pump action shotgun.
On Nov. 1, 2023, the victim’s wife, who was at the home at the time of the shooting, took the stand.
Brittney Smith testified she was putting her four boys to bed earlier in the night when Jordan White came to the door of their house and asked where Jules was.
Smith who knew White as an acquaintance didn’t recall him coming to the house before and told him her partner was out for a walk.
Hours later she testified she was sleeping upstairs with three of her kids when she was suddenly awoken by her partner screaming. When she came downstairs she saw her husband in medical distress and someone left the house with the same hair and build as White.
She testified she followed the man to a car that had a driver as it started before the man got to it. The car then quickly left.
She says she put blankets on Jules’ leg to help stop the bleeding and she called the hospital. She said police were the first to arrive and they administered first aid.
They also seized the gun that was left at the home.
Under cross-examination, Smith testified she and Jules had smoked two joints earlier in the day. She was also asked about discrepancies, from a previous hearing some time ago, about whether White was wearing a hat or not or shoes or boots, and what colour was the hair of the person fleeing the home.
Smith says her main focus was on White’s glasses, tattoos and hair and some details she was no longer certain about.
The week-long judge and jury trial is expected to hear from Jules, the victim of the Bowen Road shooting next.
Kendall Hanson
