Day 3 of testimony for Kelowna man accused in fatal stabbing

For the third day in a row, the man accused of fatally stabbing 23-year-old Esa Carriere took the stand in his own defence.

Court watched grainy surveillance videos that appear to show the activities of two of the men accused of Esa Carriere’s manslaughter around the time of his fatal stabbing.

Noah Vaten and Nathan Truant are both charged with his manslaughter.

Under cross-examination on the stand, Vaten agreed that one of the videos taken downtown near a dumpster appears to show him kneeling down and rubbing a knife on the curb.

In the hours after Carriere was stabbed, Vaten was thrown in the drunk tank for kicking at the windows of the Rutland police station.

Court watched surveillance video of him in jail, and the Crown suggested he appeared to make a stabbing motion while talking with his cellmate.

Vaten agreed, but he also noted that some of his later hand movements appear to be motions he makes when he raps.

Court also watched as the accused washed blood off of his hands in his jail cell.

Vaten testified that he believes it was his own.

The judge heard that Vaten was released from the drunk tank with his backpack and his knife that had blood on it.

Court also watched surveillance video of Vaten speaking with his best friend the day after the stabbing, pulling out his knife and rubbing his finger across the blade.

The accused testified that he does not remember why he was showing the knife to his friend.

Vaten told court that in the days after the stabbing two of his friends told him that while taking the bus home on Canada Day, he yelled that he had stabbed somebody.

However, he said he has no independent recollection of this.

Throughout trial, Vaten has testified that much of the information he is aware of about the night in question comes from what other people have told him.

He has always maintained that he blacked out from the time he did a line of cocaine earlier in the evening – until hours later, when he was arrested and thrown in the drunk tank.

Vaten is expected to be back on the stand on Tuesday.

Closing arguments aren’t expected to be heard until sometime in October.