This is the chilling moment an ex-soldier entered his neighbors’ garden before stabbing her with a ceremonial dagger while their children slept upstairs.
Footage was played to the jury in the trial of ex-Commando Collin Reeves from the seconds before the murders of Jennifer and Stephen Chapple on November 21 last year.
Reeves denies murdering the couple, who were in their 30s, but has admitted criminal counts of manslaughter.
He claims he suffered from a mental ability anomaly when he attacked the Chapples at their home with the dagger he was given when he left the army.
Bristol Crown Court jurors were told that neighbors who lived at Dragon Rise, Norton Fitzwarren, near Taunton in Somerset, were embroiled in a long-running dispute over designated parking spaces in the newly built housing estate.
Two separate clashes were caught on the Chapples’ doorbell camera and previously played out in court, with Reeves seen confronting Mrs Chapple about a seat outside of her home.
During the second incident, which occurred just 10 days before the murders, Reeves, 35, could be heard calling Mrs Chapple “f****** c***” and “you fat bitch.”
Ms Chapple appears to look at him and say, “You’re the one who started this… so fuck off,” before entering her home and slamming the front door.
During another clash on May 15, Reeves’ wife Chapple approaches in her car and tells her, “You can’t park here,” while standing near a gravel lot in front of his home.
Collin Reeves stands trial for murder (Elizabeth Cook/PA)
(PA wire)
“You don’t own the road,” says Mrs. Chapple before walking around the vehicle and continuing to confront her.
The jurors also heard a recording from the ex-soldier detailing the stabbings minutes after the couple were killed at a 999 operator.
The operator once mistook Reeves for the injured man and asked him if he was hurt before telling her, “I was walking around with a knife, I stabbed them both.”
When asked if the pair were awake when he left, he replied: “No, I think they were kind of adrift.
“He was on the floor, she was on the sofa.”
When officers arrived at the scene, the couple’s children were still asleep upstairs.
While in custody following his arrest, Reeves claimed he had struggled with his mental health since returning from Afghanistan, where he served in the army until 2009, jurors heard.
He said he had “traumatic” experiences in Afghanistan, “face-to-face with terror” and tried to block out some of his memories, the court heard.
But psychiatric teams who examined him during his incarceration found no signs of thought disorder, paranoia or psychosis, the jury said.
He appeared “upset and tearful at times, which seemed an appropriate response to his situation,” one team reported.
The trial, which is expected to take eight days, continues.