The common law spouse of a Kelowna man who was murdered in June 2021 was one of the first to testify at the trial of the accused killer.
Gabriella Sears is charged with second-degree murder and indecent interference with human remains in the death of 49-year-old Darren Middleton.
Sears was previously known as, and first identified by police upon her arrest, as Dereck Sears, but she identifies as a woman and goes by Gabriella or Gabby.
Monday was the first day of testimony after weeks of voir dire hearings on the admissibility of evidence. At the conclusion of the hearings Justice Carol Ross excluded two confessions the accused made after her arrest, due to the RCMP breaching the accused's Charter rights.
An RCMP member of the Forensic Identification Section was the first to take the stand Monday. Const. Jimmy Chau video taped the crime scene. That video was played in court.
It showed Middleton’s partially clothed body lying next to a bathtub with the water running. There were four weapons found at the scene, including an X-Acto knife and a baseball bat.
Middleton’s penis had been severed and his testicles were missing. He had suffered blunt force trauma to the head, had stab wounds and defensive injuries.
In his opening statement, Crown prosecutor David Grabavac said the RCMP lab found Middleton’s DNA on at least three of the weapons. It also identified Sears’s DNA on a bloody handprint on a bedroom dresser next to the bathroom. He said an autopsy revealed the victim had died of blunt force trauma and several of the wounds on his body were inflicted post-mortem.
Middleton’s common-law wife, Brenda Adams, found his body at Sears’s home on Sycamore Road in the early morning hours of June 17, 2021. She had been looking for him for hours after he didn’t return from picking up a load of turf from his employer, who ran a landscaping company.
She testified the couple had known Sears since February 2021 and the accused sometimes did odd jobs for them. When they first met, Sears used the name Dereck. But just days before Middleton’s death, Sears revealed that she now identified as a woman and went by Gabby.
Adams testified that she had been living common-law with Middleton since September 2017, and they had moved into a new rental property on Old Vernon Road at the beginning of June 2021. Sears was supposed to rent another home on the property, but just days before the move, the landlord indicated they did not want the accused living there.
Adams said the three got on well and that Sears helped out with yard work, small construction projects and other work quite often, usually after Middleton got off work.
She testified that the day before Middleton's death she sent Sears home in a cab around 12:30 a.m.
On June 16, 2021, Middleton had come home from work around 4:30 p.m. when his employer called Adams to tell her that a load of turf the couple wanted for their new yard needed to be picked up right away. Middleton left in Adams' truck to pick up the first load of turf.
Adams said that she and Middleton were good friends with the employer and his wife, who lived nearby. When Middleton didn’t return after more than an hour, she called the employer to ask if he was still at their property nearby, but was told he wasn’t.
Middleton had still not returned by 9 p.m., so Adams said she started calling and texting other friends to ask if they had seen Middleton. She drove to the employer's home and saw part of the load of turf, but her truck wasn’t there.
She told the court she also saw Sears near the property, walking down the middle of Moyer Road, dancing with her eyes closed and her arms in the air, like she was listening to music. She did not speak to Sears at that time, testifying she "didn’t want them (the employer) knowing I even knew him…her.”
It wasn’t until several more hours had passed that she decided to go to Sears' house to see if Darren was there.
When she arrived, shortly after 1 a.m. on July 17, the house appeared dark and quiet. She first went through the carport to the back yard before noticing the door from the carport to the house was open. She yelled “hello” but no one answered, so she went inside and followed the sound of running water to the bathroom. That’s where she discovered Middleton’s body.
Adams testified that Middleton was lying on the floor with his head towards the door and while there did not appear to be blood on Darren, there was blood all over the bathroom and in the tub. She noticed he was not wearing his own clothes, but was partially dressed in someone else’s clothing. She also saw a deep slice in his throat.
“It was very deep. I could see right inside,” said Adams.
Brenda testified that she then saw Middleton’s penis, cut in half, lying on his stomach, with an X-Acto blade lying in his crotch area. She said he was white as a ghost, his eyes were bulging and she "knew he was dead."
Adams told the court she was scared that Sears was still in the house. She ran outside screaming and called her daughter who told her to call the police, who arrived a short time later to secure the scene.
She texted his employer to tell him. “He killed Darren.”
Adams is expected to return to the witness stand on Tuesday. The employer and his wife will be the next Crown witnesses, followed by several RCMP officers, a blood-spatter expert and possibly the pathologist who conducted Middleton’s autopsy.
