Adam Troy Mann pleads not guilty as trial begins in Tori Dunn’s 2024 killing

Adam Troy Mann pleaded not guilty Monday morning in New Westminster Supreme Court to a charge of second-degree murder in the 2024 death of Surrey resident Tori Dunn. Mann was charged on June 28, 2024. B.C. Supreme Court Justice David Layton is presiding over a trial expected to last about three weeks. Several members of Dunn’s family attended the first day. The jury and court first heard from Trafford Wace, Dunn’s partner at the time of her death.

Crown counsel Sarah Fullbrook asked Wace to describe the unit he shared with Dunn in a home in the Port Kells area, including its rooms and entrances and exits. Wace, 34, also described their relationship and their activities on the weekend of June 15-16, 2024. The court heard that they went to a wedding the first night, then visited Wace’s grandmother in South Surrey. They returned home around 8:30 or 9 p.m. on June 16. After bringing in Amazon packages, they settled on the couch to cuddle and watch television. Wace said Dunn was dozing against his shoulder and was half-awake when he got up to use the washroom.

Wace testified that while he was in the washroom, he heard Dunn say something indistinct, then scream twice. He estimated he had been away from her for about five minutes. He ran out and saw a man against a wall with Dunn in front of him. Wace asked who the man was. The man swore, then moved around the other side of the couch toward a nearby sliding door. Wace recalled that the man was about six feet tall, wearing a light grey hoodie, a white shirt and a toque, and had stubble. He said the man had something “shiny” in his hand.

Wace said the man ran to the sliding door and fumbled with it. Wace asked Dunn what was happening, and she said, “He f***ing stabbed me.” Wace went around the back of the house to make sure the man had left and grabbed a kitchen knife because he had not seen the man leave. Wace called 911 and followed the dispatcher’s first-aid instructions. He said Dunn told him she thought she was dying, and he saw several wounds, including one on her stomach. Dunn lost consciousness but regained it after she was carried outside for police and first responders to care for her. Wace said she was rolling on the ground and saying how badly it hurt.

Asked whether anything was missing from the home, Wace said a kitchen knife with a carbon-steel blade was gone; he last remembered seeing it on the counter. Fullbrook also asked about the home’s entrances and exits and Dunn’s iPhone. Defence counsel Paul McMurray then focused on Wace’s initial description of Mann as white. Mann is half-Black and half-Indigenous. Wace agreed he had referred to NHL player Connor McDavid and YouTube personality Shane Dawson while trying to describe Mann’s appearance. McMurray entered photos of McDavid and Dawson as exhibits. Both counsel asked whether Wace and Dunn had locked the front door after bringing in the packages; Wace said he could not recall.

Mann mostly looked straight ahead during the proceedings and occasionally sipped water. A Surrey Police Service officer who was among the first to attend the scene testified next. The officer said Dunn was moved outside because police did not know where her assailant was. The house had not been cleared and was not safe, the officer told Crown prosecutor Tim Livingston. The officer recalled Wace as frantic and in considerable distress. The trial resumes Tuesday at 10 a.m. None of the allegations against Mann have been proven in court.