‘She was the best person I know, to this day’

A man who is accused of killing his mother when he was a teenager tearfully testified at his second-degree murder trial on Monday, his voice quivering as he told the jury he “loved her more than anything.”

The 23-year-old’s identity is protected by a publication ban. The Free Press is not naming the 51-year-old victim as it would identify her son, who was 16 at the time of the slaying in March 2019.

Defence lawyer James Lockyer opened his case with testimony from the accused in front of jurors and Court of King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne. The veteran lawyer began by asking the man to tell the court something about his mother.

“She was the best person I know, to this day… A wonderful mother to me, a wonderful person… I loved her more than anything… She always took care of me, from when I was a baby, until she was murdered,” said the man, his voice quivering as he began to tear up.

“To this day, I don’t know how someone was angry enough at her to kill her.”

The man, dressed in a navy blue suit, appeared emotional and wiped away tears, before Lockyer continued his questioning.

The victim was found bludgeoned to death in the bedroom of her Southdale home. Prosecutors argue the woman’s son is the only person who was seen leaving and returning to the house at the time she was killed.

The defence argues a co-worker killed the woman after she filed a workplace harassment complaint against him. He forcefully denied those claims when he testified earlier in the trial.

On Monday, Lockyer walked the man through his movements on the morning his mother was killed — March 26, 2019 — and through his discovery of her body.

The man claimed he got out of bed at around 8 a.m. and changed an air filter in his mother’s car, before leaving shortly after 9 a.m.

He told court he ran errands — he was on spring break from high school — which included taking their dog to a doggy daycare, buying a pair of jeans from a store at St. Vital mall, soap at a Walmart and returning an extra air filter to a Canadian Tire outlet.

The man texted his mother to say he had changed the air filter and was leaving, he told court, and his friends while he was out and about.

He testified he returned to their Southdale home shortly before 11 a.m. and noticed an unusual smell in the house that he later recognized as bleach, but he went about refilling hand soap dispensers in the kitchen and washroom.

That’s when, the accused claims, he saw blood on his mother’s bedroom door and went inside.

“That’s when I found mom,” the man said, as his voice began to choke with emotion again, telling court he called 911 while he was beside her.

The recording of the man’s 911 call was played out in court. In it, the man is breathing heavily; he tells the operator something had happened to his mother, saying she had been sleeping when he left the house.

“She’s on her bed with blood all over her,” he told the operator. He later said he thought she was dead.

During the call, when asked if there was anyone he thought would have wanted to hurt his mother, he mentioned the co-worker that his defence lawyers argue is the killer.

The man was tearful, his body clenched, as his listened to the recording.

Lockyer spent the rest of Monday questioning the man about his life at the time and since his mother’s killing, his close relationship with her and the weeks and months preceding her death.

The accused is expected to be cross-examined by the prosecution on Tuesday. This is the second time the accused has been tried before a jury.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca