A Surrey murder trial heard Monday that when police asked Kaiden Mintenko what he would tell the grieving mother of a 17-year-old boy who was mortally stabbed on a Surrey bus in 2023, he replied "I f-ing killed him."

Mintenko, 21, of Burnaby  in the April 11, 2023 stabbing of a 17-year-old boy on a Surrey bus, at the outset of a 15-day trial that began Dec. 2 in  B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster with Justice Terry Schultes presiding.

The victim was stabbed in the chest while riding on a Route 503 bus in the 9900-block of King George Boulevard and died in hospital. Schultes imposed publication bans on information that would identify the teen and two Crown witnesses and also ordered a temporary publication ban on the identity of a fourth person. 

Mintenko was arrested in Burnaby on April 16, 2023. It was Surrey's fifth homicide that year.

A Surrey Mountie who interviewed Mintenko six days after the stabbing testified that his purpose was not to extract a confession but rather "provide an atmosphere where Mr. Mintenko, if willing, would provide a version of events, or his truth of events as he so saw them."

Sergeant David Sylka, of the Surrey RCMP's serious crimes unit, took Mintenko's statement on April 17, 2023, one day after his arrest, at what was the Surrey RCMP headquarters in Newton before the Surrey Police Service became the city's new police of jurisdiction on Nov. 29, 2024.

The first interview was three hours and 28 minutes, followed by another that was one hour and four minutes, with video and audio equipment running. "He had spoken to his lawyer, and spoke with his lawyer in person," the sergeant testified.

Sylka described the interviewing model he used as "a non-confrontational approach, very calm, allowing for them to choose whether they wish to provide any statement, with the objective of gathering evidence."

He told the court he's done roughly 20 to 30 of these types of interviews.

Crown prosecutor Elise Kohno told Schultes during her opening remarks on Dec. 2 that Mintenko had "initially denied any involvement with (the victim's) death, saying he was at home on the evening (the victim) died," but later confessed to the stabbing, telling police he believed the victim to be "someone who took photographs of young girls at the mall."

Kohno noted the "primary issue in this trial would be whether Mr. Mintenko had a specific intent for murder. As the court is aware, the Crown has to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Mintenko intended to cause death or intended to cause bodily harm that he knew was likely to cause death and was reckless as to whether that ensued."

Sylka identified Mintenko in court, noting he was wearing a blue collared shirt. During cross-examination Monday Sylka said Mintenko told him he prayed for the victim. Mintenko initially told Sylka he didn't kill the teen.

He also told police he believed he was at home at the time. Sylka showed him surveillance footage to the contrary.

Sylka told Mintenko the victim's "devastated" mother deserves to know why this had to happen to her son, that he had the opportunity to bring her some closure, and "we believe that you did it." 

"Something's obviously bothering you," Sylka told him. "If you'd like to share it, it can make you feel better."

The court heard Sylka asked Mintenko what he would say to the victim's mom if he had the chance, and Mintenko replied, "I f-ing killed him."

He also told police the victim wasn't supposed to die.

"I knew I was caught from the start," Mintenko told police.

Another police officer told the court a knife sheath was seized from Mintenko's home that was just over 12 inches long, for a 7.5-inch long blade that would have been an inch and a quarter wide. Police never found the knife.

The court heard Mintenko was with a girl on the bus.

A Crown witness whose identity is shielded by a publication ban was on the bus and testified Monday the victim was standing behind the bus driver's seat. "He looked nervous. I looked at him and I was like, why is he looking back and forth to the rear?" She said she didn't looking back to see what he was looking at. She said he did this three or four times, and was on his phone. He looked "scared."

"A guy and a girl came from the back. He looked at the girl, the girl standed near the rear door of the bus. The guy started punching him. I thought he was just punching him but bus stopped they both ran away, a lot of people ran away from the bus and then the guy who got stabbed, he fall on the ground saying help, help, and a whole bunch of blood came out..."

The witness told the court the guy and girl came from the back of the bus, the bus was about to stop, they looked at each other "and he started punching him, that's all I remember. 

"There was no argument between the both of the guys. He came from the back and he just started punching him. We were not aware that he was having a sharp object with him, which we were not able to see. If I'm not wrong I think it was more than five (punches)," she said. "It was so sudden that I think it took two to three minutes for the whole incident to happen. He came from the back, started punching him, he (the victim) didn't respond at anything and we didn't see that he is starting that."

The victim "fell down on the ground," she said, with blood coming out of his mouth. The witness said she didn't see a knife. As for the girl, she said, "I think she also ran away." Most of the passengers got off "because incident happened inside."

Before the stabbing, she said, the accused and the girl didn't say anything to each other. "There was no conversation, no argument between any of them."

The witness gave police an audio statement that night.

Bus rider Anthony Isadoro said at first he thought the attacker was only punching the victim but then saw blood coming out of the teen's mouth. The witness took a quick video, replayed it "and saw that a knife was used in the attack."

The victim was trying to protect himself, Isadoro said. "He went down to the floor.

"He was crawling on the floor, asking for help."

"I was really scared, I was so nervous," Isadoro told the court.

Fellow bus rider Sonia Keshane also testified, at times with a wavering voice.
She said she was in the lineup when the victim cut into the front of the line. "He kept looking back as if something was chasing him or he was looking for someone."

"He butted in line, in front of everyone."

The victim sat in front of her. The bus filled up. 

The witness told the court the "girl that was with the man was on the phone" and told someone on the other end to meet her at King George SkyTrain station. "She was very demanding with whoever she was on the phone with." After she was on the phone, Keshane said, "she said something to the young man that was in front of me and the young man got up. Just when he was getting up the other man hit him, like nudged him and I don't know if anything, words were exchanged, but the young man that was stabbed walked to the front of the bus."

Keshane said when the bus arrived at the station "everybody started getting off and I stood up and wondering why everybody was getting off. I asked and nobody said anything until I actually got up and walked to the front and looked."

"I heard 'Help me, help me,'" she testified.

"I heard the help me, help me and then I went to the front and I saw this young man on the floor in the bus and already there was blood coming from under him and so I went to the back and I told the people in the back get off the bus because somebody is hurt and I got everybody off the bus. And there was a gentleman in the back and I asked him if he had, like I can't remember but I think I asked him like to help and if he had anything to stop the bleeding with. I believe he took something out of his bag, a jacket out of his backpack and he thought the blood was coming from the neck so he was concentrating on the neck and I also gave my scarf to stop the bleeding."

She said she could hardly feel the victim's pulse, "but I kept checking, and we didn't know where the blood was coming from."

Keshane said once police arrived they ripped open the victim's shirt "and it was only then that I saw where the wound was, and it was on the right side in the chest-breast area."

The trial continues Wednesday morning with testimony expected from a pathologist.