SAINT-JEROME -- Ugo Fredette was on the witness stand again Friday in Saint-Jerome, this time being cross examined by Crown Prosecutor Steve Baribeau about the killings Fredette admitted to committing.
Fredette is accused of two premeditated murders, including that of his wife Veronique Barbe, 41, and Yvon Lacasse, 71. He denies the killings were premeditated.
On Friday morning, Baribeau asked Fredette, in leg shackles, if he caused the death of his wife.
"I never said what happened wasn't my fault," he told the court. "I caused Veronique's death because of an accumulation of rage."
He said he gave her everything, but that she rejected him adding that others - Barbe's mother, doctor and ex - played a part in the breakup.
He said the couple had a fight four days before the killing that ended with Barbe running out of the house screaming, and that he followed her, grabbed her and put his hand over her mouth before bringing her inside.
He said he was scared neighbours would call the police.
Fredette said Barbe punched him repeatedly in the chest, slapped him across the face, and yelled for him to get off her. After a fight, the two wound up on the ground crying together.
The day she was killed, Fredette said Barbe came after him with a knife. He told the court he blocked it. And then, he said he blacked out – his next memory was seeing Barbe on the ground in the kitchen with a knife in her chest.
Barbe had been stabbed 17 times.
Fredette said he couldn't remember how the knife ended up in his hands.
Under cross examination, the Crown implied that Fredette is suffering from selective amnesia, that he knew what he was doing that day and that he did nothing to save her life.
Fredette denied it, maintaining he felt threated when Barbe tried to stab him and he boiled over.
Both the Crown and defence will make their closing arguments next week, and the case will be in the hands of the jury after Thanksgiving weekend.
