Judge allows Tejwant Danjou to withdraw his guilty plea in West Kelowna murder trial
A B.C. Supreme Court judge has allowed a Surrey man to withdraw the guilty plea he entered on the first day of his second degree murder trial in the 2018 killing of his common-law partner Rama Gauravarapu at a West Kelowna, B.C., hotel.
Tejwant Danjou, 70, surprised his lawyer and others in a Kelowna B.C., courtroom on Tuesday when he pleaded guilty to second degree murder in Gauravarapu's death.
The following day, Danjou's lawyer told the court her client refused to sign a document stating he intended to kill Gauravarapu.
The lawyer applied to withdraw his guilty plea.
On Friday, Justice Alison Beames accepted the application telling the court she realized Danjou was in an emotional state at the onset of the trial when he pleaded guilty.
The case is being heard before judge alone, without a jury.
Victim found unresponsive in hotel room
The court heard from RCMP Const. Lyndsey Schwindt — the first witness to take the stand — that she found Gauravarapu lying unresponsive on the floor of the hotel room shortly after 9 in the evening on July 22, 2018.
"Her face appeared to be very swollen — two black eyes— and above her left eyebrow was a bloody gash, " Schwindt told the court.
"Her hands were bloodied. There as a gash to the left and right side of the her neck."
The officer said she saw blood splattered on a mini fridge, blood smeared on the wall of the room and on the door knob and door leading to the hallway.
There was a broken wine bottle on the floor and blood stains on the carpet and on the bed, the officer said.
Gauravarapu died despite paramedics' attempts to treat her.
Danjou was found by police later than evening a short distance from the hotel and arrested.
History of domestic violence
The Crown prosecutor told the court Danjou and Gauravarapu had been living together in her Metro Vancouver home in Surrey since December 2015 and there had been a history of violence in their relationship.
The couple had traveled to the Okanagan to stay in the hotel and had been at a winery earlier in the day.
At the winery Danjou and Gauravarapu got in a quarrel and returned to the hotel separately, the court heard.
Gauravarapu worked as a financial planner at a bank in Surrey prior to her death.
Danjou was a Surrey real estate agent leading up to his arrest.
