This is the terrifying moment a former commando climbed a fence and jumped into the back garden of his neighbors before entering their home and stabbing them both.
Former royal engineer Collin Reeves used a ceremonial pocket knife to kill Stephen and Jennifer Chapple in their living room on November 21 last year while their two children slept upstairs.
Reeves, a former engineer, denies murder but has admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility.
He was embroiled in a long-running dispute with the couple over the issue of parking at the newly built estate where they lived in Taunton, Somerset.
CCTV footage from a security camera installed at the Chapples’ home, capturing the moments before the murders, was played to the jury at Bristol Crown Court today.
Reeves used a compost bin in his yard as a makeshift ladder to climb over his neighbor’s fence and entered their home through the back door.
Reeves then ducked to avoid being seen as he approached her back door. He can be heard yelling, “Die, you f*****s die,” while Ms Chapple, 33, yells. As she does so, the couple’s cat is seen scampering away.
Reeves then leaves the house and climbs back into his garden.
Jennifer and Stephen Chapple were stabbed to death in their living room as their two children slept upstairs
The footage shows former royal engineer Collin Reeves sneaking into her back garden at night, crouching so as not to be seen as he approaches her back door
This morning the jury saw footage captured by a Ring doorbell camera in May 2021, showing Reeves confronting wife Chapple months before her murder
Mr and Mrs Chapple were each stabbed six times with a ceremonial dagger given to the accused when he left the army in 2017.
Mrs. Reeves called her mother and father-in-law when she noticed that the ceremonial dagger was missing from the picture frame where it was usually displayed alongside photographs from her husband’s army days.
The jury was also shown ring doorbell footage of a fiery clash between Reeves and Mrs Chapple that took place on November 11 – 10 days before she and her husband were killed.
Reeves confronted her after an argument she had with his wife earlier in the day.
In the clip, he accused Ms Chapple of “making love you naughty little bitch”.
The victim replied, “She’s the one who started this, just fuck off,” to which he replies, “What is that, you shit, you fat ass, you shit? **** … f****** ***’.
This morning the jury saw footage captured by a Ring doorbell camera in May 2021, showing Reeves confronting wife Chapple months before her murder.
Reeves is seen shouting to Mrs. Chapple, “You can’t park there,” as she emerges from her small light blue car, parked on the street, across a gravel lot in front of his house.
Then she says to him: “You don’t own the street.”
Today the jury also heard a chilling 999 call after the stabbing, during which Reeves told the operators, “I stabbed the neighbors.”
Reeves, pictured here with his wife Kayley Reeves, has admitted killing his neighbors in a park row. He is on trial at Bristol Crown Court for double murder
Reeves, 34, has admitted manslaughter due to diminished responsibility
The ex-soldier has admitted killing Stephen and Jennifer Chapple (pictured) by stabbing them with a ceremonial dagger but denies murder on grounds of diminished responsibility
On the audio, Reeves told callers, “I stabbed the neighbors – the husband and the mother.
“The neighbors were stabbed by me – they were stabbed multiple times.
“I went around with the knife and stabbed them both – maybe two or three times each.”
When the operator asked if they were conscious and breathing, he replied, “I don’t think so.”
He then confirmed his name and that the victims were a man and a woman.
He added: “It happened about 20 minutes ago. I stabbed them both multiple times. He was on the floor – she was on the sofa. They were in the living room.”
Reeves then confirmed their names before his father, Brian Reeves, picked up the phone and told him to “get off.”
In a simultaneous phone call, which was also played to the jury, Collins’ wife, Kayley Reeves, called his mother.
Kayley said: “He stabbed them and said they were dead. He said he wasn’t right in the head. please please come I do not know what to do. Please – oh God!’
On the night of the murders, Reeves’ wife, Kayley, had told her husband that she was trying for a trial separation and told him she couldn’t take his “s***” anymore.
She later told police that in response he went down the stairs and then came back up before going back down and then went outside before hearing screams.
Prosecutor Adam Feest said: “Whether it was this parking dispute, tensions in the defendant’s marriage, or a combination of these things that prompted the defendant to kill his neighbors is unclear.
“When questioned by the police in an interview about his actions, the defendant decided to exercise his right to remain silent.”
Reeves’ mother, Lynn, said in a filmed police interview previously played to the jury that her son was a “closed book” who “never shares his feelings.”
He served in the army between 2002 and 2017, including in Afghanistan, but never spoke about what he saw there, she said.
It has been claimed that Reeves has struggled with his mental health since returning from Afghanistan.
Lynn wept as she appeared in court in person on Friday to testify live, and described how she found Reeves “white as a ghost” the night he killed his neighbors.
She said she was called by a “hysterical” Kayley Reeves who said “they’re dead”.
“He was white as a ghost, he was just white and he just didn’t look like Collin. He just stood there, he just looked through us like he wasn’t there and said, “I had to protect my family,” she said.
The process goes on.
A court sketch by Reeves on the dock at Bristol Crown Court
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