A man accused of murder asked someone else to kill his enemy in 2003, Yukon Supreme Court heard Thursday.

Dawson City resident James Archibald testified he was asked to kill Robert Truswell, who was 53 when he died.

George Kieran Daunt, charged with the second-degree murder of Truswell, asked Archibald to do the deed several days before Truswell's demise on Aug. 28, 2003, the court heard.

Archibald said he was sitting in the Westminster Hotel lounge with his then-girlfriend when Daunt sat down about four feet away from him at a neighbouring table and yelled at Archibald over the music.

'He didn't say, Hi, how are you doing?' or nothing,' said Archibald. 'He asked me if I would kill Robert for him. He knew I had lots of trouble with him.'

Archibald said he told the 50-year-old Daunt, who didn't appear to be drunk, not to speak so foolishly in public.

'People could be listening,' said Archibald.

When Archibald said he wouldn't kill Truswell, Daunt said he would have to do it himself.

Archibald claims he told nobody of this story except his then-girlfriend and another man.

After listening to all the evidence at Daunt's preliminary hearing last year, Archibald decided to tell his story to the RCMP.

Over the next few days, Archibald made a point of driving by Truswell's place to see if he was all right.

Archibald said he planned to talk to Daunt about their discussion at the Westminster.

One day, Archibald saw Daunt driving down the road with a stunned look on his face. Archibald said after that, he was determined to talk to Daunt the next day.

But by that time, it was too late. Truswell was dead in the Dawson gold fields. The properties of both Daunt and Truswell were blocked off by police tape.

Defence lawyer Richard Fowler scrutinized Archibald's testimony before Justice Ron Veale and the jury.

He suggested it was unlikely Archibald would be able to see what kind of look Daunt had on his face while the two passed each other at 50 kilometres per hour.

Archibald had said Daunt's look was a dead glassy-eyed stare.

Fowler said it was pretty impressive if Archibald was able to pick out those details while passing Daunt.

The defence lawyer also suggested that over the loud music, it was possible that Archibald misheard Daunt over the loud music.

Daunt and Archibald were not good friends. They only spoke once or twice a year when they bumped into each other around Dawson.

Carl Jonas, a friend of Truswell's, also overheard strange remarks Daunt had made around town, court was told.

Jonas overheard Daunt say he thought it was OK to shoot somebody if that person was stealing his property.

'I thought those days are gone,' said Jonas. 'You can't go around shooting people for stealing your stuff.'

Jonas also recalled another time in the Westminster where Daunt asked him if he had heard about the complaint Truswell filed against him. Truswell was accusing Daunt of taking belongings from him.

'Kieran appeared to be upset about it,' said Jonas.

Mining partners Kent Jenkins and Steve Van Bibber were having coffee outside with Truswell when Daunt got out of a truck to accuse Truswell of stealing some hoses and peanut butter from him.

Jenkins said Daunt did most of the screaming and chest-butting.

Van Bibber said Truswell argued right back, court heard.

'They were arguing about peanut butter and jelly sandwiches or jars of peanut butter or something,' Van Bibber testified.

He said Daunt and Truswell were standing nose-to-nose and chest-to-chest while they argued.

The two fought until the man who drove Daunt there urged him to get back in the vehicle.

Most of the evidence heard was about how Truswell would harass and threaten people.

Dawson resident Henry Reinink was one of several placer miners who had run-ins with Daunt.

Reinink first met Truswell in the 1980s and entered into a joint venture with Truswell. But the partnership fell through when Reinink went out and staked some of his own land. Truswell became angry and kicked Reinink off the joint venture property.

That would just be the beginning of Reinink's troubles with Truswell.

Truswell would later accuse Reinink of drilling on his land after he noticed a hole in the ice on his property.

'It was just a natural phenomenon,' Reinink said about the bubbling hole on Truswell's property that appeared in the late '80s.

As a result of that hole, Truswell threatened to kill Reinink, who reported the death threat to police.

In 1996, when Truswell was blocking the road, Reinink asked Truswell to move his vehicle. In response, Truswell threw a big, heavy rock at Truswell. Reinink got into his own vehicle and Truswell threw a second rock.

Reinink also reported that matter to police.

Over the years, Reinink noticed every year that someone was stealing the moss off his moss-covered roof. Reinink suspects it was Truswell because no moss has been stolen since Truswell died.

Reinink testified that the problems between Truswell and Daunt might have stemmed from Truswell advising Daunt's father, Ivan, how to kick Kieran out of his house.

Kieran had been living in a house on the late Art Fry's property. It was property Kieran's father would later buy and possibly try to remove Kieran from.

Kieran and his father had some sort of disagreement before the shooting, court heard.

Ivan had made Truswell caretaker of his property, the court was told.

Reinink said Truswell was going to shoot Daunt for living in the cabin on Ivan's newly-acquired land.

When Kieran got out of jail after the shooting, he drove to Reinink's house and let him know that he had no other choice but to shoot.

'He had to act or lose his life,' said Reinink.

Andrew Sigurdson testified that Daunt was acting paranoid the day before the shooting. He was worried Truswell was going to kill him and carried a rifle around to defend himself from Truswell, said Sigurdson.

The RCMP found that Truswell was unarmed when he died. There was no gun nor other weapon in his truck.

But Kieran mentioned to Reinink that Truswell liked to use his vehicle as a weapon.

Reinink was afraid of Truswell as well. He too carried a weapon to protect himself.

Outside, he carried a shovel. Inside his home, he had a rifle that he could go in and get, and chain saw blades by his door if he was in a real hurry for a weapon.

Reinink had heard from another Dawson miner, Wayne Hawkes, that Truswell wanted to release propane into a shaft that Reinink was working in. The propane would ignite because of the candles lit in the shaft.

'Wayne said he talked him out of it,' Reinink said.

Reinink added he was on Truswell's hit list something that was etched into the dashboard of Truswell's truck.

'I was on the top of his list,' said Reinink.

When Reinink moved off the gold fields and into Dawson, Reinink dropped lower on the list.

'I wasn't a big priority anymore,' said Reinink.

Archibald also had trouble with Truswell.

After Truswell was released from jail in the '80s, he discovered a road had been built across his land. Truswell blamed Archibald, and attacked him several times.

Once, while Archibald was driving a piece of machinery, Truswell came running out of the bush, climbed up onto the machinery and punched Truswell in the shoulder.

Archibald's then-wife talked Truswell down.

Archibald also thought Truswell had stolen a tire from him, but he didn't report it to police.

'Twenty or $30 wasn't worth a problem,' said Archibald.

In 2000, Archibald was moving his 17-metre trailer over the road that crossed over Truswell's property. He scraped some of Truswell's trees and ripped the aluminum side of his trailer.

The road on Truswell's property wasn't wide enough for Archibald's trailer because part of the road had been washed away.

Archibald said he believed the mining inspector feared Truswell.

'The inspector should have told him (Truswell) to widen it,' said Archibald.

Archibald bulldozed part of the road himself to get his trailer through.

'I hadn't talked to Robert; maybe I should have,' he testified.

When Archibald returned to his trailer, it was 'all spun around,' he told the court. Archibald said the tracks suggested Truswell had struck the trailer with a bulldozer.

Archibald said $890 worth of damage had been done to his trailer that day. He reported the matter to police. Archibald said Truswell told police he did it and would have done more damage if he could have.

Truswell pleaded guilty to the offence in court, but the plea wasn't accepted, Archibald said. The matter was deferred to circle conferencing, where Truswell tried to poke Archibald's eye out with a stick, the man testified.

'I was instructed not to respond,' said Archibald.

Eventually, Truswell was sentenced to 40 hours of community service for the trailer incident, which led him to threaten Archibald.

'He said: I'm going to kill you, you son of a bitch'... and I said, Go ahead and try it,' ' said Archibald. He added he wasn't afraid of Truswell because he thought the man was schizophrenic.

In 2002, at the Moosehide native gathering, Archibald was standing beside police officers when Truswell came over and threatened to kill him.

Archibald said police hustled Truswell awaay.

Truswell was known as Two-by-four Bob after he struck another man in the head with a piece of lumber at Diamond Tooth Gerties gambling casino.

Hawkes, who witnessed the incident, said Truswell had a piece of wood hidden in a trenchcoat. Truswell walked up behind a man who was playing cards and hit him with the board.

'He hit him so hard, I thought I killed him,' said Hawkes. 'He knocked him right out of his shoes.'

Truswell served jail time for that incident. From then on, people called him 'Two-by-four Bob'.

Dawson resident Earl Haldorson said people called Truswell Two-by-four to his face.

'(Truswell) was pretty proud of that,' Haldorson said about how Truswell felt about the Gerties incident.

The court heard Truswell had a Jekyll and Hyde personality. At times, he could be extremely nice to people and at other times, he would frighten people.

Many Dawson residents who knew Truswell avoided him.

The Crown ended its case against Daunt on Thursday. The defence will start its case Monday.

Fowler said he will use the weekend to prepare his defence. He told reporters he wasn't sure if he will call Daunt to the stand.

The Vancouver-based lawyer said he will need at least three days to present his case.

The trial began May 2.