MONTREAL -- Ugo Fredette testified at his double-murder trial Wednesday in St. Jerome.
Fredette's lawyer, Louis-Alexandre Martin, is asking the jury to find his client guilty of manslaughter, not murder, in the killing of his wife Veronique Barbe, 41, and 71-year-old Yvon Lacasse.
Fredette's defence, as he told the court Oct. 2, is that the killing wasn't premeditated.
He testified that he and Barbe had been in love since they were in Grade 6, and he finally asked her out in 2010.
He said they had strong chemistry and he had never felt similar feelings for anyone.
He told the courtroom about an argument the couple had the day before she was killed that Fredette said ended in bed. The next day, Sept. 14, 2017, Fredette said they fought most of the day with Barbe saying she wanted to sell the couple's St. Eustache home and end the relationship.
Fredette testified that Barbe tried to push him down the stairs and came at him with a knife. Fredette then said he felt rage and something went off. He said that he remembers grabbing a knife and cutting her on the left arm.
"I just remember her lying in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor with a knife in her chest," he cried in court. “The only image I have is Veronique in the kitchen with a knife in her chest. That image haunts me, disgusts me. I loved her.”He said he was panicked and stressed, and that he loved his wife.
He then said he took off in a vehicle with a boy that was in the house with him, and later saw Lacasse talking to the boy when he exited a rest stop. Fredette then went after the man and the two started fighting.
Fredette said he threw Lacasse on the ground and heard a large crack. With Lacasse immobile on the ground, Fredette said he panicked and again fled.
The crown will cross-examine Fredette on Friday once lawyers review the testimony given.
