A murdered Dawson City man was 'stalking' his alleged killer before the fatal shooting, Yukon Supreme Court was told Monday.

Robert Truswell was found dead in his pickup truck in the Dawson-area gold fields on Aug. 28, 2003. George Kieran Daunt is charged with second-degree murder.

Daunt's former girlfriend, Josee Bonhomme, who went to visit Daunt twice while he was in the Whitehorse Correctional Centre, testified that Truswell, 53, had been watching Daunt angrily.

Daunt ignored Truswell, but Truswell began to assault Daunt verbally, court was told.

Truswell accused Daunt of stealing his father's will, testified Bonhomme.

'He didn't know if Two-by-four had a gun. He couldn't see Robert's hands,' she told the court.

Truswell was known as Two-by-four to many Dawson residents because of an incident in the 1980s. He struck another man on the head with a piece of lumber at Diamond Tooth Gerties gambling casino.

Daunt had heard that Truswell wanted to kill him. A frightened Daunt shot at Truswell three times, the court heard.

Two of those shots hit Truswell and proved to be fatal.

'I think he (Daunt) was reasonably scared,' Bonhomme about the situation. 'He said he felt he had no other choice but to defend himself.'

Truswell had a reputation for threatening people. The court has heard many Dawson residents feared Truswell and avoided him.

Bonhomme said she and Daunt tried very hard not to antagonize Truswell, who was her neighbour.

In fact, she said, Daunt went out of his way to help Truswell.

But Daunt's kindness appeared to be all for naught, the court heard. Truswell angrily accused Daunt of stealing his father's medals and will, court was told.

When Wanda Bern-Schmidt, Daunt's former mine manager, testified, she alluded to a time when Truswell beat up Daunt.

Bern-Schmidt recalled another time when she took a young woman to Daunt's property to teach a girl to pan for gold.

The woman thought she saw something move. When she looked, there was Truswell rising out of Daunt's sluice box with a long-handled spade in hand.

Truswell accused them of stealing gold. The two women fled, even though they had Daunt's permission to be on the property.

Bern-Schmidt said Truswell had a tendency to hide behind trees and sneak up on people.

'It was creepy,' she said.

The court also heard a few stories of Truswell acting neighbourly.

Sarah Baker hired Truswell to do work on her claims on the Indian River. She found Truswell pleasant to work with when he helped her deal with the Yukon Territory Water Board.

Truswell saw Baker the day before he died. He told her his life was finally going well and that everything was lining up for him the way he wanted.

Truswell said this because he had just acquired new land.

Although she found Truswell nice in her encounters with him, Baker said, she wouldn't have hired him if she'd known he was a rumoured schizophrenic known as Two-by-four Bob.

Daunt's father, Ivan Daunt, a 77-year-old doctor from Yorkton, Sask., paid Truswell $2,000 to help him fix a pipeline on Ivan's claim in July 2003.

Normally, Kieran would help his father, but the two had a falling-out and Truswell was recruited to do the work instead.

One day, while Ivan and Truswell were working on the pipeline, Kieran showed up. He complained of some carpet missing from his sluice box.

Truswell then accused Kieran of stealing the Truswell family medals. Kieran confronted Truswell about why Truswell told people around Dawson he wanted to kill Kieran.

'Kieran almost exploded,' said Ivan.

Kieran then left and went to talk to his mother.

Ivan and his family staked a few gold claims in 1973, after they'd come to Dawson on holidays.

Since then, Ivan has come up from Saskatchewan every summer to work on his gold claims.

Kieran, now 50, arrived in the Yukon when he was about 20 years old and eventually became a permanent resident of the territory. Ivan said that sometimes, Kieran would winter in Saskatchewan.

Most of the witnesses who have testified have left Dawson since the murder.

Outside the courtroom, witnesses, who have not seen in each other in a while, chat happily with one another, catching up on old times. Many are friends of Daunt.

If Daunt is found guilty, he would serve a minimum of 10 years in jail.

Justice Ron Veale is presiding over the trial, which began early last week.