Witness in deadly 2018 Williams Lake shooting maintains he saw accused with gun

Photo: Kristen Holliday

A man who says he witnessed a deadly shooting in Williams Lake in 2018 held firm Thursday under cross-examination, maintaining the accused had entered the victim’s house armed with a gun.

In B.C. Supreme Court on Thursday, George Kalogerakos maintained he witnessed two men — Wyatt Boffa and Daine Stump — enter a residence belonging to the victim, Jamie Sellars Baldwin, in the evening of Dec. 11, 2018.

Boffa and Stump were charged with first-degree murder in connection with Baldwin’s death, however, Stump pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of manslaughter earlier this week. Boffa's trial began on Monday and is ongoing.

Kalogerakos told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Alison Beames he had been working on a truck parked near Baldwin’s residence on Dec. 11, and saw a vehicle pull up to the house with three people inside — Boffa, Stump and Stump’s mother.

The group went inside Baldwin’s home and talked, and Kalogerakos said he remembered hearing Boffa speaking to Baldwin in a confrontational manner.

Kalogerakos said the group left abruptly but, about a minute later, Boffa and Stump came back inside the home armed with long guns.

Glenn Verdurmen, Boffa's defence lawyer, suggested that it wasn’t actually Boffa and Stump who entered the home, but other individuals who Kalogerakos was afraid to name.

“I’m suggesting to you that it was people other than Daine and Wyatt who came back into the house and shot twice to kill Mr. Baldwin. … I’m suggesting to you it was people you are extremely afraid of,” Verdurmen said.

“No, it was Daine and Wyatt,” Kalogerakos replied.

“I’m suggesting these people other than Wyatt and Daine were people or gang members that you were familiar with from your years of living in Williams Lake and being in the drug industry,” Verdurmen said.

Kalogerakos, who told court Monday he smoked crystal meth and had purchased drugs from Stump’s mother in the past, denied this was true.

Verdurmen referenced statements made to RCMP after the incident, which show Kalogerakos — who called 911 after the incident — told police he was still working under the truck when he heard two shots fired, and didn’t see the people inside the house.

“Why didn’t you just do the right thing? What stopped you?” Verdermen asked, pointing out that Kalogerakos was taken in the back of a police car to the Williams Lake RCMP detachment, where he would have had some safety.

“You spent time trying to figure out who to blame so you wouldn’t suffer retribution or retaliation.”

While Kalogerakos said he was afraid of retribution, he denied this assertion, and maintained he later provided the correct name of the shooter to RCMP.

The trial is set to continue next week.