Adam Mann convicted of second-degree murder in Surrey home invasion

A jury found Adam Mann guilty of second-degree murder Wednesday in the death of Tori Dunn, a 30-year-old Surrey woman who was fatally stabbed during a home invasion in June 2024.

Dunn was stabbed four times, including an 18-centimetre deep gash in her abdomen, when Mann entered the Port Kells residence she shared with her boyfriend around 10 p.m. on June 16, 2024. She suffered defensive wounds on her hands and died in hospital from her injuries. Mann, an Ontario resident, was found by Surrey police while they were en route to Dunn's home after the attack.

DNA evidence connected Mann to the crime: his DNA was found on the knife handle, and Dunn's blood was on the same blade. Mann claimed he had picked up the knife on the side of the road before police arrived — a statement the jury rejected. He remained in custody from his arrest through Wednesday's verdict.

At the time of Dunn's death, Mann was out on bail pending an unrelated aggravated assault charge. Court records spanning B.C., Ontario, and New Brunswick show a decades-long criminal history. In 2009, he was sentenced to 12 years for robbery and weapons offences in a home invasion in Ontario; he unsuccessfully appealed that conviction in 2010. A pre-sentencing report from that conviction deemed him an "unmanageable risk" unsuitable for community supervision. By age 25, he had 22 prior convictions including violent offences involving firearms and robberies. In December 2014, while at Atlantic Institution in Renous, N.B., he was convicted of assault for spitting on two employees. A 2021 B.C. conviction for publication of intimate image without consent is also on record.

Dunn's family launched a petition calling for legal review of Mann's bail release and broader bail reform. As HighOnCity reported in October, the trial opened in New Westminster Supreme Court with her partner testifying about the fatal stabbing, and DNA evidence later linked Mann to the crime. Sentencing is scheduled for October 29, 2026, when Justice David M. Layton will determine Mann's parole eligibility, which ranges from 10 to 25 years. He faces automatic life imprisonment.