Murder trial begins in 2017 shooting death of 27-year-old Tyler Applegate

Wearing t-shirts painted with the words “R.I.P. Tyler” and “Justice for Tyler,” nearly a dozen family members, including 27-year-old Tyler Applegate’s mother, spouse, children, and others turned out for the first day of Dallin Lane Singharath’s trial.

“I thought he was like Hercules, you know? Nobody could take him down,” said Applegate’s niece Prentice Sipploa outside of Court of Queen’s Bench.

Singharath is accused of shooting and killing Applegate on July 22, 2017 after an altercation involving a man urinating on a fence surrounding a home on 33rd Street West. Applegate died in hospital three weeks later on Aug. 10. He has pleaded not guilty to one count of second degree murder and to one count of reckless use of a firearm.

The accused entered the courtroom with the support of crutches, wearing a black plaid shirt. He sat expressionless on the prisoner’s bench as members of Applegate’s family looked at him from the gallery.

Crown Prosecutor Cory Bliss called Applegate’s spouse, 29-year-old Kathy Cardinal, as the first witness.

She told the court on the morning of July 22, she heard her brother-in-law Jay arguing with someone outside and asked him if he was okay. He told her “a guy pissed on our fence.”

He then woke up Applegate, who ran out of the house and chased away the man who was urinating on the fence. Cardinal said her husband told her the man apologized, and they all believed that was the end of the altercation.

Cardinal testified that a short time later, a dark grey pickup truck with tinted side windows pulled up beside the house, then went behind the home into the back alley. Cardinal, Applegate and Jay were standing on the deck at the back of the house when three men got out of the truck and began walking towards the back yard.

Applegate picked up their dog’s leash, which had a chain on it, and wrapped it around his arm. He also picked up one of their children’s bikes and held it in front of him as he walked towards the back of the yard.

Jay followed, and Cardinal then told the court she heard one gunshot.

“I can’t really describe the sound,” she said. “I’m pretty sure it was my brother-in-law who screamed out, gun!”

The next few minutes went by quickly, she testified. She saw one man dressed in black, with a black hoodie and black bandana covering his face; another man with short hair, jeans and a white t-shirt; and a third man wearing a light coloured shirt, partially obscured by the family’s van.

She did not see a gun.

After the shooting, the three unidentified men went quickly back to the pickup truck and fled through the alley. Police were on the scene a short time later.

Although the Crown presented pictures of blood droplets on the deck, inside the home and in a bathroom, Cardinal says she did not see Applegate bleeding.

“For a second, I didn’t think I believed it,” she said.

Applegate was taken to hospital but never regained consciousness.

“He never actually woke up at the hospital,” she sobbed.

Defense lawyer Laura Mischuk had few questions for the 29-year-old mother, only asking about the descriptions of the men she saw outside her home, and how tall the fence was.

The trial is expected to last two weeks.

Three other men have been charged in relation to the case.