A Richmond man allegedly used a cleaver to kill his wife in what the Crown is calling a case of "extreme domestic violence."

James Jian Hua Wu has pleaded not guilty to the May 4, 2014, second-degree murder of his spouse, Jin Jenna Cheng.

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In her opening statement to a jury on Tuesday, prosecutor Shannon Smith said that on the second anniversary of their marriage, Wu used the weapon to inflict injuries to his wife's head and neck area.

Warning jurors that the evidence would be graphic, Smith quoted a pathologist as saying that there were too many injuries to the victim to count.

"The Crown's theory is that this is a case of extreme domestic violence, that the accused intentionally killed his wife in anger following what was a difficult and frustrating period in their marriage."

Smith said she expected that the jury would have no difficulty in finding as a fact that Wu caused the death of his wife.

"We expect that the principal issue you will have to consider is what was the accused's state of mind. Or, in other words, what was his intent when he caused Jenna's death."

To prove the charge of seconddegree murder, the Crown must make a case that Wu intentionally committed the crime.

Smith said the first police officers responding to a 911 call found the victim and Wu lying on the floor outside a seventh-floor apartment suite in their home in the 7000 block of Granville Avenue.

She said the accused had blood on his face and his clothing. His hands were covered in blood and had long dark hair stuck to them.

The victim had a large open wound in her neck and injuries to her arm and other areas, and her clothing had blood on it, Smith said. A cleaver was found by the victim's head, she said.

A neighbour will testify that at the time of the incident, she heard a knock on the door and saw a young girl and a man holding a knife, Smith said. A woman was hugging the man from behind, she said.

The neighbour took the young girl, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, into the suite and helped her to call 911, said Smith.

RCMP Const. Mark Denham, the Crown's first witness, said that he was dispatched to the scene after being told that a male had killed a female.

When he arrived at the apartment hallway, he said he saw blood on the walls and two bodies lying on the floor.

"My initial impression was that they were both dead," he told the jury.

When he got closer to the bodies, he saw a knife and yelled out the word "knife" three times to other officers nearby.

The man lying on the floor then sat up in a cross-legged position, Denham said.

The officer said he drew his firearm after seeing that there was a wound to the woman's neck.

Another officer ordered the man to move away from the knife and the man began crawling down the hallway, Denham said.

After observing that the woman was not moving and not breathing and believing that she was dead, Denham turned his attention back to the man.

He said he asked the man his name and then asked him who had attacked the woman.

"He said: 'I did,' " Denham said. He asked the man again who had done it, and the man replied again that he had done it.

"At that point, I told him he was under arrest for murder."

The Crown is expected to call 16 witness during a trial that is anticipated to run six weeks.

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