NEW WESTMINSTER - Beatrice Thomas thrice refused to call 911 before finally calling for help as her commonlaw husband Quannah O'Soup lay stabbed and dying on their living room floor, two Crown witnesses have testified.
Thomas, 38, is being tried for second-degree murder in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. O'Soup, 37, was stabbed on July 3, 2011, inside a tiny half-duplex the couple rented in North Delta, across from McCloskey Elementary school Crown witnesses Patricia Thiessen, 52, and Timothy Senft, 45, lived with the couple for a while.
"Quannah said we had to help shoplift to pay our way," Thiessen said.
Thiessen testified that Thomas and O'Soup "didn't get along when they were using" crack cocaine. "They were always arguing or bickering. There seemed to be a power struggle."
"She (Thomas) was tired of the drinking, the drugging, the stealing" and his "bossing her around."
Thiessen, O'Soup and Thomas were smoking crack the night O'Soup died.
Thomas's daughters, age 10 and 15, were in their bedroom that night and didn't witness the violence.
Thiessen said O'Soup was in his bedroom smoking crack, and she and Thomas were in the bathroom doing the same, when Thomas pulled out a pipe from under the sink and began smacking it against her hand. "She said if anything happens, this is self-defence," Thiessen testified.
O'Soup was "tweaking," Thiessen said. O'Soup wouldn't share his drugs with Thomas, she said. "He was so high, his eyes were huge. He couldn't talk."
Thiessen said she retreated to the kitchen, where Senft was drinking beer, and told him, "These guys are f-ed, I don't want to be around."
She said she and Tim decided to "stay out of it," and Thomas told them to stay in the kitchen "in case something happens."
O'Soup came down the hall, went into the living room and began fiddling with the stereo dial, Thiessen said.
Thomas went in after him, yelling.
Senft told the court he and Patricia were in the kitchen. "We heard a loud bang, and then another bang, and then a thump."
Thiessen said she went into the living room. O'Soup was on the floor and Thomas was going through his pockets. Thiessen said Thomas told her to check his socks and shoes. "She didn't say why," Thiessen said, adding she figured "I was looking for dope, or money."
Senft then entered the room. Thomas pulled up O'Soup's shirt. "It looked like puncture wounds in his chest," he said. "I believe it was three or four.
"I asked Beatrice, 'What the f- did you do? 'And her response was, 'He was coming at me.' "I asked Beatrice to call 911, and she refused. I think she said 'No, I can't.'" Patty was in the kitchen at this time, he said. "I asked her (Thomas) to call 911, more forcefully," he said, and then asked her again. Eventually she called.
Thiessen echoed this.
Thiessen said Thomas told the police "some guy" fell on the floor, but she couldn't provide her own address. Senft took over the call. When police arrived, they separated everyone.
Standing out on the lawn, about 20 or 30 feet apart, Thiessen said, Thomas put her forefinger to her lips "and motioned for me to be quiet."
The trial continues.