Two police officers who responded to a call for a stabbing at a home on the Norris Road on the city’s east side one stormy February evening last year followed “a large trail of blood” into a hallway and that’s where 31-year-old Scott Bennett was found—on his knees, moaning against a closed door.
That from Sergeant Ronald Cooper at the manslaughter trial of Justin Bennett, who is accused of killing his uncle. He testifies that as soon as he arrived in the kitchen of the bungalow on February 4, 2015 he could see blood and things scattered around the floor of the home. Sgt. Cooper says he called his name but received no response. He says that one of his wounds, on the left side of his back, had “a lot of blood coming from it.”
The jury hearing that in the room behind that door Scott Bennett had been against were three young men who were all taken into custody. On the floor of that room Sgt Cooper says there was a hunting knife or steak knife which had a curved 4-6 inch blade with blood on it. Constable John Kilfoil testified that he was the one who arrested Scott Bennett’s nephew Justin Bennett and after hearing that Scott had died, Kilfoil told Justin that he was being charged for murder. He says that he did not see any injuries to Justin Bennett.
Another Saint John officer that responded to the scene was John MacDonald and he testifies that life-saving attempts for Scott Bennett, who had been taken to the hospital’s trauma room, were stopped at 10:32pm. At 11:14pm the coroner arrived.
The jury also hearing about analysis of autopsy exhibits which suggest that Scott Bennett wouldn’t have been impaired at the time of his death. There was methadone in his system but the levels found were normal. In 2015 Scott was on a methadone maintenance program.
