This is a continuation of a second degree murder trial in Quesnel Supreme Court; for previous coverage look in previous Observers or online, www.quesnelobserver.com
Ken Price was found not guilty Thursday by a 12-member jury.
Price was charged with second degree murder after an incident July 2009 at the Lewis Drive "brown cabins".
Price testified Albert Boivin had him by the throat when both men went for the knife.
“I thought I was a dead man,” Price said.
“I thought he was going to kill me.”
Price testified Boivin still had a hold of his throat when Price spotted a knife on the bed.
“I thought he was going for it,” Price stated.
When Price grabbed the knife, he described reaching over and around Boivin and “flailing away, stabbing, trying to get him to let go of my throat.”
“I wasn’t aiming for any particular place, there was no time to think,” he said.
Price remembers at one point both men being on their knees, adding Boivin still had a hold of his throat.
“Then he was on top of me,” Price testified.
“That’s when he let go [of Price’s throat].”
Price then testified he pushed Boivin off him and “stumbled” out of the cabin where he tried to “catch his breath.”
The accused then heard a “crash behind him”. Price testified it was Boivin exciting the cabin.
“I started to run to the road, when I looked behind me he was stumbling,” Price said.
“He crashed into the next cabin and went down.”
“How did you feel?” defence asked.
“Disbelief, shock, fear, anger,” Price replied.
“Anger at who?” defence asked.
“At Albert,” Price said.
“Why?” questioned defence.
“Because he tried to kill me,” Price replied.
Defence also questioned Price on the audio recording of himself taken in the back of the RCMP truck the night of the incident.
“Do you remember what Cst. Fletcher was telling you?” defence asked.
“No,” Price said.
“Why not?” asked defence.
“I was in shock,” Price said.
“I had just killed a man.”
Price testified he doesn’t remember being read his rights, being informed he was arrested for murder or phrases that could be heard on the tape such as “is he dead?” and “He attacked me and he attacked that woman.”
“Did you have any idea there would be any violence that night?” defence asked.
“No,” Price replied.
Next defence covered Price’s injuries. Price testified his throat was sore, his back was out, bruising and “raw knees”.
Price also said he “didn’t think much of the marks” until his common law wife came to visit him at the RCMP detachment and asked if anyone had photographed his injuries.
“And did you do anything after that about pictures?” defence asked.
“Yes, I asked quite a few times,” Price testified.
No photographs were taken.
“Why did you feel the woman in the cabin was being threatened?” defence questioned.
“Slapping her, calling her names, throwing her in the bedroom – if that’s not threatening, I don’t know what is,” he said.
The jury commenced deliberations Wednesday afternoon, they came back with a not guilty verdict of both second degree murder and manslaughter Thursday at 11:30 a.m.