The man charged with killing 24-year-old Aldergrove resident Kyle Barber says he did have a knife when he assaulted Barber on March 28, 2009, but insists he did not intend to use it.
The B.C. Supreme Court trial of 24-year-old Albert Jacob Jackman heard him testify Tuesday that he was holding a knife in one hand when he punched Barber repeatedly in the face for trying to shoot him, but denies he meant to wound Barber.
“I never stabbed him,” Jackman said.
“Not even once?” Crown prosecutor Christopher McPherson asked.
“I could have,” conceded Jackman, a massively-built man with a tattoo just below his right ear and a neatly-trimmed beard who wore a grey suit with no tie during his appearance before a B.C. Supreme Court judge in New Westminster.
Jackman also disputed testimony by Barber’s girlfriend that he and co-accused Gregory Michael Barrett, 32, forced their way into Barber’s home in the 24400 block of Fraser Highway the night Barber was fatally stabbed.
“We just wanted to talk to them” said Jackman.
Jackman is charged with first-degree murder in Barber’s death while Barrett, a broad-shouldered clean-shaven man who wears glasses, is charged with manslaughter.
Jackman is in jail. Barrett is free on bail.
According to Jackman, he and Barrett went to see Barber because they believed the occupants of the Fraser Highway house were involved in a marijuana grow rip at a Barrett-run operation.
Barber invited them in, Jackman said, and it was Barber who suddenly got physical.
“Things got out of hand.”
When prosecutor McPherson suggested the two men had been asked to leave by Barber’s girlfriend, Jackman disagreed.
“Not that I remember,” he said.
Jackman said they were all talking in the living room when Barber ran to a bedroom and got a gun.
Jackman was able to take it away from Barber, he said.
“I was disappointed a man would pull a gun on me,” Jackman told the court when he was asked his reaction.
“I took the situation very seriously. I was upset.”
“I suggest you were angry,” McPherson said.
Jackman thought about it for a moment.
“Yes.”
He denied the girlfriend’s claim that Jackman showed Barber a tattoo on his wrist to make it clear they were dealing with members of the Red Scorpions gang.
At the time of his arrest, Jackman was described as an associate of the Red Scorpions and the Bacon brothers by the Integrated Gang Task Force.
Jackman said he took Barber down stairs into the basement and punched him in the face several times after the gun incident, but he denies using scissors.
After that Jackman said he went upstairs to wash the blood off his knuckles, returned to the basement and brought Barber back upstairs.
“He was mentioning he had money upstairs,” Jackman said.
Barber had told his visitors that he had money in a safe to compensate them for the grow rip, Jackman said.
He denies threatening to break Barber’s fingers.
Under cross-examination by the prosecutor, Jackman also denied that he stabbed Barber in the leg and back when Barber fled into the bedroom
The trial is scheduled to continue until the end of April.