Guy Turcotte's second trial for the double murder of his children Olivier and Anne-Sophie has begun.
Crown prosecutors made an opening statement Wednesday morning in the St. Jerome courthouse, explaining to the jury how they plan to prove that Turcotte knew what he was doing when he stabbed his children at their home in Prevost in February 2009.
The team of prosecutors told the jury this was Turcotte's second trial, and how three-year-old Anne-Sophie was stabbed 19 times, while five-year-old Olivier was stabbed 27 times.
The prosecutor cautioned the jury that it will be an emotional trial.
“This mother lived the worst thing one can imagine. The horror of 46 stab wounds by the man she chose to be the father of these children,” the prosecution stated.
The children's mother and Turcotte's ex-wife, Isabelle Gaston, will take the stand at a future point. The Crown said it will explain how Turcotte read emails between Gaston and her lover the night of the murder, then proceeded to cancel appointments for the next few days, and call his mother for a long, "cryptic" conversation that convinced her to show up at Turcotte's home the next morning with police.
Following the opening statement the Crown called its first witness, crime scene investigator Daniel Fortin.
He is explaining hundreds of photographs of the crime scene, but limited himself to only one photograph each of the murdered children, saying the jury did not need to see all the autopsy photos of each stab wound.
“In this file, there is evidence that could be difficult emotionally so the jury was warned about that,” said prosecution spokesperson Jean-Pascal Boucher.
The first witness is an SQ investigator who produced a large quantity of pictures from the crime scene.
They showed Turcotte's former rental home under every angle inside, including the bedrooms where the two murders took place.
Once the prosecution is done explaining the crime scene to the jury, Gaston is expected to take the stand.
The trial is expected to last three months.
