SAINT-JEROME, Que. -- Guy Turcotte said he killed his two children to spite his wife, a nurse testified at his first-degree murder trial Tuesday.

"He said he wanted to make her angry and that the way to do so was to take away from her what was most precious to her," Chantal Duhamel told the court.

Duhamel said Turcotte told her he did not want his children, Olivier, 5, and Anne-Sophie, 3, to suffer from his separation from Isabelle Gaston and that is why he killed them in February 2009.

"He told me, 'I would like you to give Isabelle the message that I did it to piss her off'," Duhamel testified.

Superior Court Justice Andre Vincent reminded the jurors that comments attributed to Turcotte by another person constitute hearsay and that they cannot conclude the remarks were actually made.

Turcotte and Gaston were separated at the time of the killings and it had emerged that she had been having an affair.

Earlier on Tuesday, an emergency technician testified that Turcotte told hospital officials a day after his children were stabbed to death that he wanted to die and that what he had done was terrible.

Marie-Pierre Chartrand said she and the entire staff at the Saint-Jerome hospital were in shock when they saw Turcotte.

"I had a moment of denial," said Chartrand, who had been told the man who was to arrive at the emergency ward was being arrested in the alleged murder of his children.

Chartrand told Turcotte's first-degree murder trial he asked to not be treated and to be allowed to die.

She said he was lucid although she had the impression he may have been slightly intoxicated because he was acting in slow motion like someone who had consumed a few beers.

"I believe he understood what was going on," she said. "There was clear psychological distress. He was crying a lot and talking a lot.

"He said what he had done was disgusting, that he should be allowed to die and that his life was over."

Chartrand said it was decided to treat Turcotte because she thought he was suicidal.

The former cardiologist has pleaded not guilty but has admitted to causing the children's deaths.

On Monday, pathologist Andre Bourgault testified that Anne-Sophie's heart was pierced, while Olivier's hands had wounds.

"He tried to defend himself between four and seven times," said Bourgault, who has conducted more than 4,000 autopsies in his career.

He said Olivier was stabbed 27 times and Anne-Sophie 19 times. They had wounds to the stomach, the thorax and on their back.

The trial will resume Wednesday morning.