Mom raped, killed while baby in home. Neighbour charged in gruesome killing of new mother

The Vancouver Province

When her husband, Bernard Domingo, returned home from work around 4 p.m. on Nov. 4, 2003, he found the door open and heard two month old Breanne crying, the opening day of a first-degree murder jury trial heard yesterday.

He had last spoken to his wife on the phone at 11 a.m. that morning.

Domingo walked into the living room to find Brenda Domingo, 27, naked and covered in blood, lying on her back on the floor, Crown prosecutor Paul Dohm told B.C. Supreme Court.

There was a bloody, 20-centimetre long butcher knife lying next to her, and blood was spattered on the carpet, couch and sliding patio door, court heard.

William Turpin, who is their next door neighbour, with whom they shared a partially divided balcony, is on trial, charged with first-degree murder in her death.

Dressed in an ill-fitting black jacket with grey shirt and no tie and navy blue pants, the large, beefy man with a grey pallor sat with hands shielding his eyes during Dohm's opening address.

Turpin, who is in his late 50s, later rested his head on his fist and occasionally leaned forward in the prisoner's dock to talk to his lawyers.

From time to time, he would turn to stare hard at the handful of spectators in the public gallery, which was empty of any friends or family members of his or the victim's.

The five-woman, seven-man jury heard that an autopsy determined the young mother had been killed by "a large number of puncture wounds to her chest, back and head area."

She also had a "large incision" just below her rib cage, which had been inflicted after she died, Dohm told the jury and Judge William Erhcke.

He also said that Domingo suffered "blunt-force trauma injuries to the vaginal area," which occurred around the time of death.

Turpin committed the crime and DNA evidence would prove it, Dohm told court.

He said Turpin's DNA was found in the apartment near her body, on bite marks on the woman's wrist and on a pair of boots and pants found in a dumpster at a nearby mall witnesses saw Turpin walking to. Domingo's blood was also found on the discarded clothing.

Dohm told jurors they would have to determine Turpin's intention that day and to what extent, if any, Turpin's level of intoxication played in his intention.

Court heard the young couple had moved into the Burnaby complex on Linden Avenue in May 2003 and Breanne was born on Sept. 2, 2003.

Bernard Domingo, an electronics and communications engineer, is expected to be called as a witness today.

He told the "Asian Pacific Post":http://www.asianpacificpost.com/news/article/116.html shortly after the murder that his wife had given up a career as a systems analyst with Intel in Arizona to be a mother. The couple chose Canada in which to raise a family because they considered it safe and peaceful.

Even though the couple was new to B.C. and knew few people, more than 800 people attended her funeral in Surrey.

The local Filipino community also raised enough money to pay for Bernard to transport her ramins to be buried in her hometown of San Carllos, Pangasinan.