Once one of Quebec’s most wanted, a man who admitted to killing his wife on Christmas Day 2007, is facing trial.

Harinder Singh Cheema was arrested in San Francisco in July 2015.

His 29-year-old wife Gurpreet Kaur, originally from India, was found dead in an apartment on Deguire St. in Saint-Laurent one day after he was seen hastily leaving the home.

He then dropped off his two children – 20 days and 18 months old at the time – at a friend's house in Park Extension and never returned home, police said.

Cheema doesn’t deny having killed his wife, and during opening statements Thursday, both the prosecution and defence stated as much.

However Cheema has pleaded not guilty to murder and his defence attorney has not yet revealed what the legal strategy will be in this case.

In court on Thursday, family friend Rangvinder Singh testified that the couple, both recent immigrants, were struggling.

He said that Kaur told him one day that she planned to leave her husband as soon as her immigration papers were in order.

The next day Kaur was killed.

Cheema called Singh after the death, saying he killed had killed Kaur in front of their children, aged 18 months and three weeks, and that he wanted to drop the children off with Singh

Singh said he urged Cheema to go to the police, but the accused said he wanted to visit a Sikh temple before confessing to the crime.

Instead, Cheema left his children and went on the lam, first to Vancouver, then to California.

His friends called police when he never came back.

During cross-examination, the defence tried to highlight the victim's aggressiveness and personal insults she allegedly made about Cheema's family.

At the time of his arrest, Cheema had been the subject of a Canadian arrest warrant since January 2008.

He was found through his fingerprints when he made an application for permanent residency status in the United States. He had been living in San Francisco under a false name. He is originally from India and did not have Canadian citizenship.

The trial is expected to last until November.