Exchange student heard screaming, hid in basement on night host was killed in Wolseley home, trial hears

The Japanese exchange student who lived in Judy Kenny's basement told police she was woken by the sound of screaming, and was so terrifiedshe hid in the basement until police arrived, a jury heard in a Winnipeg courtroomTuesday.

A videotaped statement made by Yuri Inagaki to police was played for the jury on the second day of the trial of Brenda Schuff, 46. She's accused of second-degree murder in the death of Kenny, 54, who was found dead in the early hours of April 10, 2017, in her Wolseley-area home.

On Monday, the trial heard that Kenny was found on the floor of her kitchen, lying on her back, with several "significant" stab wounds to her chest.

Schuff has pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge.

In her video statement, Inagaki told police that she was woken in the middle of the night by screaming that sounded like it was coming from Kenny. She said she had been living with Kenny for about seven months at the time.

Shewas too scared to go all the way upstairs, she told police, so shelistened to what was going on from the stairs. She told police she heard two voicesKenny's and another woman's.

Kennystopped screaming a couple of minutes later, but then started again, Inagaki told police.

She said she texted a friend asking for helpand later called him.

When the screaming started again, she asked him to call police for her.

"I was waiting in my bed. I was shaking," she told police.

After not hearing anything for a while,she decided to come upstairs, whereshe found Kenny surrounded by "a bunch of blood" with a knife in her head.

"That's how I found her," she told police in the tape.

Crying and wiping away tears, she saidthat she told her friend, who she was still on the phone with, she was "very, very scared."

She said she hid in the basement until police came and searched the home.

Accused approached with bloody hands: police witness

Earlier on Tuesday, the police officer who discoveredKenny's lifeless body told the jury that Schuffapproached police that night, saying she was someone they were "going to want to talk to about this."

Winnipeg Police Service Sgt. Ari Mamott testified on Tuesday thathe was first to arrive on scene at Kenny's home on Camden Place, just after 3 a.m.

Police had received a call asking for a well-being check, he testified.

He entered the house because he was concerned there might be a medical emergency he needed to attend to, he said. But soon after entering the house, he found Kenny's body on the floor.

He said it was apparent Kenny was deceased, as she had a knife plunged through her head and multiple stab wounds, and her body had lost colour.

Shortly after, more emergency services personnel began to arrive on scene.

While he was talking with the firefighters and paramedics who had arrived, Mamott said a woman approached him, telling him "I'm the one you're going to want to talk to about this."

She was holding up her hands, palms up. They were covered in what looked like blood, Mamott said.

Mamott said he then took the woman, later identified as Schuff, into custody.

Schuff and Kenny were neighbours, but did not know each other before the night of the killing, court heard on Monday, the first day of the trial.

FriendtestifiesKenny wasn't heavy drinker

During opening statements Monday, the jury was toldthe Crown intends to prove that Schuff beat and stabbed Kenny after they had both been drinking.

The pair met when Kenny was out looking for a dog that had gone missing, Crown attorney Debbie Buors told the court Monday. Theyended up at Kenny's home, where "something went horribly wrong," the prosecutor said.

On Tuesday, a friend of Kenny's testified that he went to pick up his dog from her home the night she was killed.

Charles Gulay said when he arrived at about 11 p.m., it seemed like Kenny had been drinking.

"She was just acting weird, really weird," he testified,adding that he asked her if she'd been drinking.

Gulay said he had known Kenny for over a decade, and that they talked every day.

During cross-examination, he said Kenny wasn'ttypically a heavy drinker, and would have too much to drink "once in a blue moon." He told the court that she had never become violent while drinking when they were together.

The trial, expected to last three weeks before Justice Richard Saull, continues Wednesday.