Content Warning: This story contains some disturbing content. Reader discretion is advised.
The trial of Kelowna woman charged with the killing and castration of a former friend was adjourned mid-way through proceedings last week when she fired her lawyer.
Gabriella Sears, who is facing a second-degree murder charge in the death of Darren Middleton, is now looking for a new lawyer, the BC Prosecution Service said in a brief statement.
“The trial has been adjourned briefly to allow her to retain new counsel. The BCPS will have no further comment while the matter remains before the court.”
The complicated trial had been ongoing for weeks, following a voir dire in which Sears’s then-lawyer, Jordan Watt, successfully argued to have her jailhouse confession to the killing ousted from the evidence the Crown could draw on in its case.
Since then, the judge has heard from RCMP officers and witnesses about the gruesome crime and repeatedly looked at video from the scene.
A Louisville Slugger baseball bat and box cutter were found next to the body of Middleton on June 17, 2021, Brenda Adams, Middleton’s common-law spouse of four years, told the court.
Adams and Middleton had known Sears, a transgender woman who transitioned only days before Middleton’s death, for around five months, Adams said. They were friends, and Sears worked for the couple, helping with manual labour around their property. In turn, they paid Sears in food and drinks.
One day, when Middleton failed to come home when he said he would, Adams thought she should check in with Sears and drove to her house.
When she arrived at the Sycamore Road home, Adams saw Middleton’s truck in the driveway. She “could hear water running inside the residence and nothing else,” Crown counsel David Grabavac told the court.
“She eventually entered the residence and followed the sound of running water to the bathroom.”
There she found Middleton’s body, Grabavac said. He was partially undressed and castrated on the bathroom floor next to a running tub.
Comments