A judge has allowed a videotaped statement to be admitted as evidence in an Edmonton-area murder trial, saying at the time of the recording, the accused possessed mental competence and understood his charter rights and right to remain silent.
Dylan Pountney is accused of the stabbing death of classmate Jennifer Winkler, 17, at Christ the King School in Leduc in March 2021.
The interview was conducted by Sgt. Collin Kuca, who is part of a specialized unit with the RCMP serious crimes branch.
After the interview process was explained, Pountney was asked if he’d eaten that day. He said he hadn’t really eaten in a few days and hadn’t been offered anything since his arrest.
Kuca asked what he’d like to eat.
“Single grain of rice with no sugar,” Pountney said.
“A single grain of rice?” Kuca asked.
“Yeah, a single grain of rice with no sugar,” Pountney replied.
As the interview began, Kuca said “you murdered a young lady by the name of Jennifer Winkler” then asked if she was his step-sister.
“I would say no, they were never married,” said Pountney of the relationship between Jennifer’s father, Dale Winkler, and his mother. “I don’t find the relationship to be real anyway,” he added.
Kuza asked him to describe himself and his family life, which is when Pountney spoke about an alleged violent sexual encounter between Dale and his mother – a memory he said was from when he was four or five years old.
“I saw my mom, she was chained up to the bed,” said Pountney. “It’s really hard for me to talk about,” he added.
Pountney alleged his step-father killed his mother before being asked about the incident at the school.
Pountney said he wasn’t sleeping, was listening to heavy metal music, watching blood cult videos on Youtube and was “very dark and very violent feeling.”
“I can’t believe I did it,” said Pountney.
“Blood for blood, he murdered my mother with cigarettes,” he added.
“Did she die of cancer?” Kuca asked.
“Yeah,” Pountney replied.
He went on to say he felt like he couldn’t get help, and mentioned being possessed by satan.
“When did the idea of hurting somebody first pop into your head?” Kuca asked.
“When I remembered what my mother went through,” he responded.
Pountney said he thought of Jennifer a few days prior.
“You have issues with her father…and you wanted to get back at him?” Kuca asked.
“Not in the beginning,” said Pountney.
“I regret it of course, she was an innocent girl,” he continued.
Pountney recounted what he did that morning, taking a butcher’s knife from his kitchen, putting it in his pants before getting a ride to school with his grandmother.
“I wanted to inflict pain on her, make her go and then I wanted to take hostages and demand things,” he said, adding he wanted to burn “a hundred thousand dollars outside the school.”
He said he wanted to die “suicide by cop.”
“I just remember screaming out for blood,” he said. Pountney said he paced outside the classroom door contemplating it.”
“I put it once in her side and that’s when everything went really quick,” he said.
“I somehow had it in her neck.”
Pountney then said he didn’t know how it happened.
During the trial – the court heard from an advanced paramedic that Jennifer had lost an “excessive” amount of blood. She was airlifted from the school by STARS Air Ambulance but later died.
“I murdered somebody in front of a bunch of kids.” Pountney continued in his video statement.
“It’s heartless and it’s cold and I don’t think I should see the light of day.”
He then told the sergeant he didn’t want to remember or talk about it.
Pountney did talk about dropping the knife and running from the school. He said he hid in a backyard for awhile.
Kuca asked him what happened after he left that hiding spot. Pountney recalled approaching a parked car saying “Get out of your car b***h.”
He said he grabbed some cigarettes then ran and hid under a porch until he was later arrested.
Defence lawyer Derek Anderson did call one witness on Monday – his client’s grandmother Kathryn Pountney.
“I’m very close to him, and still am,” she told the court of their relationship.
Kathryn said she did notice a change in her grandson when his mother and father separated.
“He’d seem to get quite angry sometimes,” Kathryn said.
Anderson asked her about a fight that happened between Pountney and his brother about a year before the incident.
“It was just like he was a different person. He was enraged and his eyes were so wide,” said Kathryn.
“That’s the first time I’d ever seen him like that,” she added.
When asked if she noticed anything unusual about her grandson leading up to the incident or on the ride to school she said no.
During cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Jeff Rudiak asked Kathryn if he was close with his mother.
“I don’t think he was that close,” said Kathryn, adding “He always liked to be with me.”
Rudiak asked if Pountney had ever spoken about Jennifer.
“Just a couple of times that he had seen her at the school and there was some cards that he wanted back that she had,” Kathryn said.
She said he’d asked her to give them back “because they were his mother’s.”
The trial will resume in Wetaskiwin on Wednesday.