Man accused of killing mother as a teen had 'remarkable relationship' with her: lawyer
CBC
WARNING: This story contains graphic details of a homicide.
Competing arguments over whether a man beat his mother to death when he was a teenager were heard by jurors in a Winnipeg court for the second time.
The 23-year-old is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the killing of his 51-year-old mother in March 2019. He sat in the prisoner's box on Friday, with over a dozen supporters nearly filling the gallery section behind him.
CBC News is not naming the mother to protect the identity of the accused, who was 16 at the time of her death and cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
On Monday, Manitoba Court of King's Bench Justice Ken Champagne told jurors that the case has gone to trial before, but he urged them not to speculate on what sparked the retrial.
"What happened there has nothing to do with your decision in this trial," Champagne said in court recordings reviewed by CBC News.
On the morning of his mother's death, the youth left their home to run errands around 9, and returned less than two hours later, which is when he found her body and called 911, court was told.
"My mom … she's … she's on her bed, there's blood all over her," he sobbed in the 911 call, which was played for jurors Monday.
During that call, the teen said his mother had been sleeping when he left and the front door was unlocked, but the house didn't appear broken into.
His mother's face was so badly injured that it was "gone," he said.
The son was given instructions on how to do chest compressions on his mother in the call, but he seemed to hesitate, saying she was dead.
He was also asked whether he knew if his mother had any conflicts with anyone.
"This guy at work was bothering her.… I don't know," he said. "Mom was always worried."
The case presents two possibilities: that the man murdered his mother before he left home that morning, or someone else entered the home and killed her while he was running errands, said James Lockyer, the man's lawyer, who is also the founding director of Innocence Canada.
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