NEWS photo Cindy Goodman

A NATION WIDE CN rail stoppage has halted many wood pulp deliveries,
teaving Lynnterm’s usually full North Shore warehouses aimost empty.
Sales manager John Ellis hopes Ottawa has trains running early next week.

- Jury considers rage theory in W. Van murder trial

' WAS DALE Paterson in an uncontrol-
‘Jabie steroid-driven rage the night two
years ago when his former lover was
clubbed and strangled to death in West
Vancouver? Or was he a calm and cor-
dial character?

By Brent Mudry and Robert Galster
- Contributing Writers

A B.C. Supreme Court jury must grapple

., ‘With these questions in Paterson's trial for first-
* degree murder in the death of Scott Kraft. a 31-
year-oid bank worker.
Two vastly different pictures of Paterson‘are
‘coming into focus in court. Paterson, a 33-year-
old former lifeguard, apparently confessed to

... Kraft’s murder in a 9-1-1 call on the evening of

Aug. 3, 1993, in the British Properties.
Police found Paterson covered with blood in
"Kraft’s Southborough Drive home. Kraft lay
“dead on the living room carpet, still grasping a
‘Tength of rope. A new baseball bat, bought at
Eaton’s in Park Royal, lay on the stairs nearby.
+, “He was a good tenant, with no problems at
ali,” testified Paterson’s landlord David Farris.
“) West Vancouverite Farris and his wife rented
a basement suite in their Kings Avenue home to

Paterson three months before the murder.

“You found him to be a friendly, decent
sort?,” prosecutor Joe Bellows asked.

“Yes.” Farris replied without hesitation.

Defence lawyer Sheldon Goldberg contends
Paterson was a chronic steroid abuser, which
made him irritable, angry and aggressive.

Bellows claims Paterson stalked his ex-lover
for two years after their two-month tryst ended.

Paterson’s former roommate has stepped for-
ward as a Crown witness, after hearing media
accounts of the trial, and is scheduled to testify
next week.

On Friday, the jury was allowed to see pho-
tographs of Kraft’s body undergoing an autopsy
performed by Dr. Laurel Gray, an expert foren-
sic pathologist with over 300 court appearances
to her credit.

Mr. Justice Richard Low told the jury the
reason the photographs of Kraft’s autopsy were
not Originally included in their packets was
because “they are not pleasant to look at.”

Gray told the court her findings show the
cause of Kraft’s death to have been strangula-
tion, but not before he sustained a fractured
skull which may have caused him te temporari-
ly lose consciousness.

Her testimony not only did not rule out the
bat as a possible weapon used to fracture Kraft’s

skull, it gave credibiiity to that theory. She
added that the skull fracture also damaged
Kraft’s inner ear and was the probable cause of
external bleeding via the ear.

Gray told the court injuries caused by the bat
would be more discernible “if the body was
struck by an object like this in an area where the
bone is closer to the skin surface.” However, she
added that the presence of hair would act as “an
intervening factor” and make the external
injuries appear less serious, possibly explaining
why no sign of blood was found on the bat.

During Gray’s testimony, the court was also
told that a struggle between: Kraft and his
assailant lasted as long as “several minutes” and
included two kinds of strangulation attempts:
those involving a ligature as well as manual
attempts. She based the findings on the patterns
of bruising both on the skin surface of Kraft's
neck and the muscles beneath the skin.

Although Kraft’s body was found holding a
piece of rope, Gray pave evidence that Kraft’s
tie may also have been used to strangle him.

With the tie in her hands, Gray told the jury
it was “twisted and deformed” with a “very tight
knot.” She later testified that the pattern of the
rope’s coil would have left matching marks on
the victim’s neck unless a piece of clothing was
lodged between the two. The trial continues.

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