Murder trial of 29-year-old Jonathan Styres hears witness testimonies

The trial for the shooting death of 29-year-old Jonathan Styres began today. Styres was shot and killed in 2016 and Peter Khill has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

The trial is being held at John Sopinka Courthouse in Hamilton and the jury of 12 has been reduced to 11 because one of the jury members has to be discharged. The remaining jurors heard from Timothy O’Keefe who was a Hamilton police detective at the time of the case in 2016.

During the cross-examination of O’Keefe, the defence brought up evidence of a business card that was found in the pocket of the deceased. The card had the name of a real estate company on Main St. West and on the other side was handwriting that read “Highway 56.” No other details were released.

Styres was shot and killed on Feb. 4, 2016 outside of Peter Khill’s home on Highway 56 in Binbrook.

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The second witness was Judy Chin from the Centre of Forensic Sciences in Toronto. Chin told the jury that she does gunfire distance determination, specifically trying to determine the range of fire. Chin told the jury that the muzzle of the shotgun was “less than 12 feet from defect two.” Defect two was the gunshot wound on the chest of Styres. When talking about the gunshot wound near Styres’ right arm, Chin said the distance was “more than one foot and less than 12 feet.”

The agreed statement of facts admitted by Khill was read by the Crown, on Feb. 4,  Khill shot Jonathan Styres. Styres died as a direct result of the injuries and the shotgun recovered was Khill’s.

The Crown also showed evidence to the jury that included photos taken by detectives of the home where the incident took place, the pickup truck and blood samples that were collected.

The trial will resume on Wednesday at 10 a.m.