Splattered with blood, Ken Brotherston Sr. admitted to choking Keith Taylor, testified West Shore RCMP officers Wednesday.

Cpl. Doug Brayley was watch commander on the night of May 30, 2008. Shortly after 6 p.m. he was notified by dispatch that Ken Sr. was outside of the detachment with a man he had a fight with. Brayley and Const. Kelly Falconer found Ken Sr. near the front entrance.

Ken Sr. approached the officers and explained there was a man named Keith in the backseat of his truck. He didn’t know the man’s last name.

Ken Sr. told the officers there had been “fisticuffs” and Taylor had put a gun to his face, Falconer said. Ken Sr. said he had to “choke him out” to control Taylor, Falconer continued.

“I did observe blood on Mr. Brotherston,” Falconer said, noting the splattering was on his forearms, hand and face. “He was very agitated as a result of what was going on.”

Taylor was in “a bit of a fetal position,” Brayley said. While Brayley questioned Ken Sr., Falconer climbed inside the truck to check for vital signs. He found none, although he noted Taylor’s skin was still warm and moist.

“He had all kinds of lacerations and marks about him,” Brayley said. “He had no shirt on, he didn’t have any shoes on.”

Former Highlands councillor Ken Sr. and his two sons, Greg and Ken Jr., stand charged with second degree murder in the death of Taylor.

The officers attempted to remove Taylor from the truck, but it was difficult, Brayley said. Ken Sr. climbed into the truck and helped them by lifting Taylor by his belt buckle while the officers pushed and pulled him out of the truck.

Once Taylor was out of the truck, Brayley performed CPR for about 20 minutes, until paramedics arrived. Throughout this time, he questioned Ken Sr. on what had happened.

“I recall him saying there was ‘lots of fisticuffs,’” Brayley said. “He said (Taylor) tried to extort $100,000 from him and he choked him out.”

Ken Sr. also said there were witnesses and that he had taken a gun from Taylor. Brayley seized the gun from him at that point.

“It was at that point that I thought Mr. Brotherston might have had something to do with (Taylor’s condition),” Brayley said. “I though it best he be brought in and be questioned.”

Falconer brought Ken Sr. into an interview room where he reiterated his story, with the details remaining the same from the version he told outside. Ken Sr. also said it was only him and Taylor involved in the fight, Falconer said.

His level of agitation had greatly decreased once the men got inside, Falconer said. “He was almost drained. He sat very still and very quiet,” he added.

Shortly before 8 p.m. he was questioned by another officer and arrested. Falconer took him to a cell and seized his clothes as evidence.

Brotherston brothers flee to friend's house

Meanwhile, Greg and Ken. Jr made their way to a house a few blocks from the RCMP station, according to testimony from Denise Newman on Tuesday.

Newman told the court Ken Jr. and Greg arrived separately at her 2600-block Millstream Road home in Langford around 7:30 p.m. on May 30, 2008.

She heard coughing and gasping in her neighbour’s backyard, she said, which turned out to be Greg. Ken Jr. turned up at the front door minutes later.

Both were in clean blue jeans and T-shirts, she said, but Greg had a cut on his hand and Ken Jr. had a little dried blood on his arm.

Newman said she initially thought the boys were involved in a street fight, but pieced things together as the Brotherstons talked between themselves and to their mother on a cellphone.

“After 15 minutes I had the gist of what had gone on. There was an altercation at (the Betula Place house) between Keith Taylor and the Brotherstons,” she said.

From the brothers’ conversation, she said that Ken Jr. had wrestled a gun away from Taylor in an incident that escalated into a fight between Taylor and Ken Sr.

Afterwards, the men loaded Taylor into their truck and Ken Sr. drove to the West Shore RCMP detachment to turn Taylor and the gun over to police, Newman said. She also learned Greg had hidden in the parkade of the under-construction Reflections building and had run through several neighbours yards to arrive at her house.

Newman said the boys learned their father was in custody from their mother. They talked about getting a lawyer, she said, and that they were upset Andrea Olson and Devon Daughtry tried to intervene in the fight at the Betula Place house.

“They said it was stupid of the girls to jump into an affair that wasn’t of their concern,” Newman said. “They said it was stupid to get into the mix because they would get hurt, and they did.”

In a subsequent phone call with their mother, the boys learned Taylor had died, Newman said. She agreed with defense lawyer Dale Marshall the boys were “upset and shocked.”

Al Arsenault, sporting a head injury and Olson also arrived at her home, Newman said, and initially she told them to go away. She only allowed them inside after promising they and the Brotherstons would stay separated and quiet. Olson said “whichever one of you hit me, hits like a girl,” Newman said. “I told her to shut up,” she said.

A former girlfriend of Greg’s picked up the Brotherstons, Newman said.