The prosecution tested Randy Tshilumba's sincerity as he took the stand for his cross-examination Tuesday.
Tshilumba has admitted killing clerk Clemence Beaulieu-Patry at the Maxi grocery store in St-Michel on April 10, 2016, but is pleading he was mentally ill at the time.
Throughout his testimony at the Montreal courthouse the defendant has insisted he believed he was targeted by his victim and her friends. He claimed he felt he had to kill her or else she would have shot him and other customers in the supermarket, and said he only went to the store that day to try to convince her not to kill him.
The Crown prosecutors had some questions for him, however: first, they ask if he only wanted to talk to her, why was he wearing leather black gloves? Tshilumba said he couldn’t remember.
Why did he bring with him a change of clothes? They asked. Tshilumba said he needed to be clean for his parents after.
His answer was vaguer on why he hid the knife, and when asked why he actually stabbed her, Tshilumba simply repeated that he did it in self defence.
Following the cross-examination Tshilumba's mother took the stand and discussed the day her son was arrested.
She said she was shocked and surprised by the arrest, adding that she had never seen her son be violent.
Tshilumba's mother cried in the courtroom as she said that watching her son's arrest induced physical symptoms similar to having contractions.
Her crying grew more intense and she sobbed, then screamed in court.
The judge ordered a recess for her to regain her composure, and when she resumed testifying she said Tshilumba was a normal teenager until the end of high school, when he grew distant, sad, and isolated.
She said his marks dropped, he said he wanted to move away, and she feared for his life.
Her testimony continues Wednesday.
