Jurors shown accused killers' clothes and shoes with blood spots on them

The scene of a fatal Whistler shooting on July 24, 2022. Photo by Submitted photo

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RCMP Cpl. Andrew Norris carefully removed black hoodies, pants, shoes and gloves from exhibit bags one-by-one in B.C. Supreme Court on Friday and carried each across the room to show jurors up-close.

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He flipped the clothing from front-to-back and showed the shoes from several angles to Justice Miriam Gropper and the jury at the Vancouver murder trial of Gursimran Sahota and Tanvir Khakh.

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Sahota and Khakh leaned in and looked carefully at the exhibits as Norris walked past them. Their lawyers went over to the Mountie for a closer look at two pairs of black batting gloves found inside a black Chrysler in which the accused killers were stopped in Squamish four years ago.

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Norris agreed with Crown prosecutor Don Montrichard that he had assumed custody of the clothing and other exhibits seized by other officers after Meninder Dhaliwal and Satindera Gill were murdered outside Whistler’s Sundial Hotel on July 24, 2022.

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The jurors had already heard admissions at the trial about Dhaliwal’s blood being found on the shoes and pants that Sahota and Khakh were wearing when they were arrested less than an hour after the murders.

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Two spots on Khakh’s black Reebok runners had Dhaliwal’s blood and DNA on them, as did “an area on the upper front right side” of the Puma pants he was wearing, according to the admissions, read into the record by Montrichard.

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Sahota’s black Armani pants had spots of Dhaliwal’s blood at the upper left thigh near the crotch and on the exterior front right bottom cuff, the admissions also said.

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Both of Sahota’s Nike shoes had Dhaliwal’s DNA on them as well.

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“The estimated probability of selecting an unrelated individual at random from the Canadian Caucasian population with the same profile is one-in-5.6 quintillion,” Montrichard said.

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Norris also testified Friday that he attended the autopsies of both victims done at the Abbotsford Regional Hospital on July 27, 2022.

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“Essentially, my role was just to observe and then collect any exhibits that were collected,” Norris said.

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He seized bullets and bullet fragments that were recovered from the bodies of both Dhaliwal and Gill.

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The earlier admissions noted that the autopsy on Dhaliwal showed there were injuries to his “skull, brain, face, left scapula, left clavicle, left ribs and both of his legs.”

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The doctor who did the autopsy “determined that there were 16 entrance wounds and 10 exit wounds on the body of Mr. Dhaliwal, with a total of 16 wound tracks.”

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Ten of the entrance wounds and six of the exit wounds were in his head.

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“During the autopsy, five bullets were recovered from Mr. Dhaliwal’s head,” the admissions said.