Guy Turcotte murder trial: Ex-wife Isabelle Gaston testifies
Gaston says the day her children were killed, Turcotte told her, 'You want a war, you'll get it.'
On the day her children were killed, Isabelle Gaston was told by Guy Turcotte: "You want war, you'll get it," Turcotte's ex-wife told the jury on the first day of her testimony.
Gaston, the mother of two children stabbed to death in 2009, took the witness stand on Monday at the second murder trial of Turcotte, her former husband.
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Gaston recounted some of the couple's conflicts leading up to the deaths of five-year-old Olivier and three-year-old Anne-Sophie, who were found dead by police in Turcotte's Piedmont home.
The children had been stabbed 46 times.
Gaston described her relationship with Turcotte as having "ups and downs," especially beginning in 2008. On February 20, 2009, Gaston testified that she told Turcotte she had changed the locks at the family home.
Turcotte told her she didn't have the right, and he yelled at her over the phone, she told the court.
The next morning, the bodies of Anne-Sophie and Olivier were found.
The trial, taking place in Saint-Jérôme, Que., was briefly suspended Monday morning and resumed in the afternoon.
Turcotte admitted to causing children's deaths
Last week, Turcotte, a former cardiologist, admitted causing his children's deaths in an 11-page document submitted to the court. The document listed facts and evidence that both the defence and the Crown had agreed to accept.
Prior to the document being submitted, police witnesses — including one of the officers who found the children's bodies — testified last week. Two knives, an opened bottle of windshield wiper fluid and graphic images of the crime scene, among other pieces of evidence, were presented to the jury.
The jury has been warned to expect some gruelling emotional testimony throughout the trial, which is expected to take about three months.
Justice André Vincent ordered the jurors to ignore anything they heard about the case outside of the courtroom, saying they must concentrate only on the evidence given at the trial.
Background on legal battle
Last week, Vincent began proceedings by reading the charges to the 12 jurors — two counts of first-degree murder.
In 2011, Turcotte was found not criminally responsible for the deaths and was remanded to the Pinel Institute, a Montreal psychiatric facility. He was released in December 2012.
The verdict in Turcotte's first trial was thrown out after the courts found the initial judge had made a mistake in communicating with the jury.
An appeals process that went all the way to the Supreme Court resulted in Turcotte's re-arrest last year.