By Patrick Burles - @PatrickBurles on Twitter

Witness recounts finding body, says accused was “always jealous”

May 24, 2018 | 3:33 PM

LETHBRIDGE – “There’s something wrong with Candy. She’s all bloody.”

Lacey Hunt, who also goes by the last name Scout, recalled how she told her friends immediately after finding the body of Frances “Candy” Little Light in February of 2016.

Hunt took the stand Thursday, May 24, to testify in the manslaughter trial of Jillian Across the Mountain.

Hunt explained that on Feb. 7, 2016, she had been staying with other individuals in the apartment building where Little Light lived and shared a unit with Across the Mountain. She noted that Little Light was like an aunt to her, saying, “She kind of took care of me while I was in Lethbridge.”

That morning, Hunt says she got up between 10:30 and 11 a.m., and went downstairs to Little Light’s residence. She said Little Light appeared to be very intoxicated – ranking the level as an 8/10 – and saying that Across the Mountain was also intoxicated but much less so, “I’d say about a three or four [out of 10]. She knew what she was doing.” She added that Little Light told her they had been drinking hairspray.

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“As soon as I walked in, I could feel the tension,” said Hunt, stating that the two women bickered during the half hour to 45 minutes she was there, although she couldn’t say what it was about. She said the tension continued to increase and that she was pulled into the bickering as well.

“Jillian was always saying that me and Candy were together. She was always jealous,” she testified. “She said, ‘I know what you guys are doing,’” to which Hunt replied, “I’m not gay,” before leaving the apartment.

After spending the afternoon drinking with some friends, Hunt said she returned to the apartment building in the early evening, where two others were waiting at the front entrance because they didn’t know the new entry code to get in. Hunt volunteered to go through Little Light’s apartment, saying the screen door on her balcony was usually open, so she could go through the unit and let the other two into the building.

“I jumped over [Little Light’s] balcony,” Hunt said, before taking a long pause. “And that’s when I found her.”

Initially thinking that Little Light has just passed out, Hunt nudged her and when there was no response she ran through the apartment and to the front door of the building, letting the others in and telling them what she had found.

After taking them to Little Light’s apartment – where one of them called 911 – Hunt ran upstairs to tell another friend.

“I told her, ‘I think Candy got stabbed,’” she told the other woman as they met on the stairs. When asked by the Crown prosecutor how she knew Little Light had been stabbed, she responded, “There was so much blood.”

By the time the two returned to the apartment, Hunt stated that police officers and EMS were already on scene.

During cross examination by the defence, Hunt acknowledged that in the early morning hours of Feb. 7, she awoke to the sound of Little Light banging on the door and yelling for Across the Mountain to come out, noting that she sounded intoxicated. She stated that Across the Mountain was not in the apartment she was staying in.

When asked by the defence why she left Little Light’s apartment that morning she said, “Because I don’t trust her,” later clarifying by stating, “I don’t trust Jillian.”

The Crown is expected to call their final witness on Friday, with no word yet on how the defence will proceed at that time. The trial is scheduled to run until June 1.