Crown seeks at least 17 years for man guilty of killing wife

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This article was published 19/05/2022 (1534 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

BRANDON — After his father killed his mom and tried to kill himself by causing a gas explosion at their home in October 2019, Adam Hughes said his life fell apart.

“It is impossible to ignore that I must face future hardships without being able to consult my most trusted adviser. I must celebrate future successes without my greatest cheerleader,” Adam Hughes said in a victim impact statement that he read at the sentencing hearing for his father Wednesday.

A jury found Robert Hughes guilty of second-degree murder last year in the death of his wife Betty Hughes.

Adam Hughes, who spoke through tears, remembered his mother for being kind and dedicated to her children.

“I have spent thousands of dollars and countless hours working with professionals to try and navigate my post-mom world… it may well be the reason I am able to speak these words today,” he said.

“To survive, I have reluctantly come to accept that I will never be the same person I once was. Pre-murder Adam and post-murder Adam might as well be two different people.”

He read a statement from his sister Ashley. She said losing her mother was life-altering.

“I am a different person than before my mom’s death,” she said, adding she struggles with anxiety, panic attacks and problems with her memory.

“My children are very young, they will grow up without both grandparents. The thought of having to explain to them why they don’t have a grandma and grandpa has kept me up at night.”

Robert Hughes wore a black suit and walked stiffly to the prisoner’s box, flanked by sheriff’s officers.

Addressing the court, he said his wife had been a great person and a great mother.

“I died two and a half years ago, it’s just my body that they won’t allow to die. I miss her, I’m still trying to make sense of what happened.

“If I had done something differently that day, that week, that year… the worst possible outcome is on me,” he said, his voice breaking with emotion.

On Oct. 22, 2019, Brandon firefighters responded to the east end property after it blew up, court was told in December. When they arrived, the walls of the house had been blown out; Manitoba Hydro had to turn off the natural gas line.

Brandon Const. Travis Foster testified Betty Hughes was found inside the destroyed house. She had multiple cuts and had lost a lot of blood.

Court was told firefighters found Robert Hughes with a noose around his neck in the destroyed house. He was transported to Health Sciences Centre in Winnipeg, where he was arrested by Brandon police on Oct. 25.

A pathologist testified Betty Hughes had more than a dozen injuries, but the cause of death was blood loss from an 11.7-centimetre wound that extended from her eyebrow across her temple and into her ear.

Robert Hughes testified there had been a prolonged struggle with his wife in the kitchen, which he described as “World War III.”

Crown attorney Christian Vanderhooft recommended Robert Hughes spend 17 years in prison before being eligible to apply for parole. He said Robert Hughes showed no regard for anyone around him when he severed the gas line to his house in a suicide attempt that caused the explosion.

“He didn’t care about the consequences and his future risk and recklessness must be a concern for the court and the public,” he said.

Defence lawyer Saul Simmonds recommended his client serve a minimum 10 years in prison.

“Mr. Hughes recognizes that he could have behaved differently, that he had other options… but we all do that in reflection when we’re in a position in which we look back on things that transpired,” he said.

The judge is scheduled to deliver his sentence next month.

— Brandon Sun