Victim Evan Tylan Bear and his son. Photo submitted by Kristen Stonestand.
More than a dozen people openly sobbed at a Prince Albert jury trial on Monday as they listened to a 911 call from a Muskoday woman trying to save a stabbing victim’s life.
Robyn Laura Ermine, 30, is on trial for second-degree murder of Evan Tylan Bear, who was 27 at the time of his death in Ermine’s home on Muskoday First Nation.
In opening statements, Crown prosecuter Jeff Lubyk said the case he will lay out over the next week or so will show that Ermine and Bear, who were dating at the time, had been drinking with Ermine’s stepsister Shelinda Vallier the night he died. The couple had gotten into a fight and Ermine grabbed a knife from the kitchen, stabbing Bear twice, Lubyk said, and it was the knife hitting an artery in Bear’s neck that proved fatal.
The first pieces of evidence were 911 recordings from the early hours of Feb. 21, 2015. Two women identified themselves on the line. The first woman called herself Laura and used an expletive in asking for an ambulance to hurry up.
She did not say why she was calling aside from saying there is a man who was “drunk on the floor right now but he needs help.”
In court, Ermine removed her glasses, wiping away tears and sometimes letting tears roll down her cheeks as she listened to the recording. Behind her, around a dozen or more of Bear’s family members sniffled and cried in the gallery.
The other woman on the 911 call, who spent more than 20 minutes on the line and sobbed loudly throughout, said her name was Shelinda. She initially said Bear was conscious and had been stabbed in the neck as the operator told her to put pressure on the wound. When asked who stabbed bear, she said “I don’t know.”
The operator quickly put Shelinda to work doing chest compressions, with the operator rhythmically counting to 10 for several minutes straight to help the process.
At one point during the hectic rescue efforts Shelinda started yelling desperately, and the operator asked “is Laura there with you?” Shelinda said “no she left.”
Within minutes, the operator asked Shelinda to do a “breathing test,” and she felt no breath. Soon after, the operator had her start doing CPR. The breaths were audible in the recording as the operator told Shelinda to see if Bear’s chest was rising, and she said it was.
However, in Lubyk’s opening statements he said by the time paramedics came there were no signs of life. Bear’s body remained on the floor the following day as officers like Sgt. Mark Goodwin awaited a search warrant to enter Ermine’s home.
Goodwin is an RCMP forensic investigative specialist who took the stand as the trial’s first witness. He spent the bulk of his testimony describing the process of collecting evidence – which included DNA evidence from Ermine’s body while she was in custody – and recording evidence at the home.
The trial is expected to hear from at least 10 witnesses, with Vallier as the only eyewitness.
Ermine had been out on bail in the past, but last year entered a guilty plea for a probation breach, receiving a fine and surcharge.
On Monday, she sat in the prisoner’s box wearing her hair in a ponytail and a leopard-print cardigan, and unencumbered by handcuffs or shackles.