Tyler Dove told the court Thursday he doesn’t know who stabbed him one morning last November, but he says he knows for sure it wasn’t the man charged with the crime.
Taking the stand at the trial of Thomas William Keeping, Dove, who is in custody on unrelated charges, first said he couldn’t remember anything about the incident that left him with three stab wounds in the abdomen.
After he was presented with his medical records he gave minimal details, but said he didn’t know his attacker.
All he knew, he said, was the guy was short with orange hair, and it wasn’t Keeping.
Keeping, who is relatively tall and has brown hair, was arrested after a police dog had tracked a scent from the scene to a residential backyard. He was located lying face down under a deck.
Keeping, 32, has pleaded not guilty to charges of assault, aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, mischief by damaging property, theft under $5,000, break and entry, driving while disqualified, multiple charges of possessing property obtained by crime, and multiple charges of breaching court orders in connection with the incident, which happened in the Outerbridge Road/Doyle Street area, in the west end of St. John’s, Nov. 28.
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Dove’s teenaged brother testified he had been living with their grandmother on Outerbridge Road at the time, and had woken up around 7:30 a.m. to get ready for school. Shortly before 8 a.m. he heard yelling and fighting, and went upstairs from his basement bedroom to see what was happening.
He said he saw Dove and another man fighting inside the home, near the front door, and when the man ran outside, Dove chased him. The teenager said he followed.
“I do believe my brother was hitting him on the head or something,” he said. “I don’t know if I saw the stabbing or not but my brother yelled out, ‘I’m hurt, I got stabbed.’ I think instinct kicked in after that and I ran over to him. He said, ‘Am I going to die?’ and he got pretty scared. I put my hand on his wound and got him inside.”
At that point, Dove’s grandmother was walking back to the house, having gone out to get coffee and breakfast. She told the court she saw two people fighting on the lawn and at first thought it was her two grandsons. She saw Dove, wearing just boxer shorts, run after the other man and make a hitting motion before her younger grandson called out, “Nan, get down here, Tyler’s been stabbed and it’s bad.”
Both the teenager and his grandmother described a man in a black jacket, but were unable to give many other details. The man ran in the direction of Doyle Street, they said.
“Do you see the person in the room here today?” Keeping’s lawyer, Shelley Senior, asked the teenager.
“I’m not sure. It was a bit of a blur,” he replied.
Dove’s grandmother said she went inside the home to find her cellphone and cigarettes missing; police later returned her cellphone to her.
A number of police officers also took the stand Thursday, describing the scene when they arrived. One told the court he went inside the house to find Dove sitting on the couch with his brother holding a tea towel to his abdomen, both of them “covered in blood.” There was a blood puddle and splatter outside the home as well, one officer testified. He said Dove indicated he didn’t want police near him and didn’t give them much information before paramedics took him to hospital.
Another officer said Keeping had been found with a kitchen knife, and similar knives were located inside the grandmother’s home. Keeping was carrying four cellphones when he was arrested, as well: one of his own, two later determined to belong to people in Dove’s grandmother’s home, and one belonging to a plumbing company.
Two neighbours also testified in court. A woman described being up early that morning, before the incident allegedly happened, getting her kids ready for school and chatting outside with another mother from the area. She said she noticed a wheelchair-accessible school bus coming slowly down Outerbridge Road, driven by a man in a black jacket who appeared to be looking for a specific address. She said she saw him park the bus and go to the door of Dove’s grandmother’s home, banging on it loudly while talking on his cellphone.
The bus, which was still parked near the home when police arrived, was later determined by police to have been stolen.
Keeping’s trial continues today.
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Twitter: @tara_bradbury
