Hallucinatory journal entries offer glimpse into mind of man accused of murdering common-law wife

In the months before the death of Tammy Brown, her common-law partner, Blake Schreiner, believed at various points that he was Jesus Christ, a demon, a wolf and a high-ranking member of the Illuminati secret society, a Saskatoon court heard at his first-degree murder trial on Wednesday.

Schreiner was taking psilocybin, or so-called "magic mushrooms," and they triggered intense hallucinations, he testified. By his own account, his behaviour become increasingly erratic over 2017 and 2018 as he began hearing voices, becoming paranoid and fearing his life was in danger.

Two months before Brown's death, he testified that he began having visions that she wanted to kill him.

"I had visions of Tammy over top of me with a knife ... and then shovelling dirt on me in a grave," he said in court Wednesday.

Brown was killed on Jan. 29, 2019, in her Saskatoon home. Schreiner is charged with first-degree murder and is on trial at Court of Queen's Bench.

On Wednesday — Schreiner's 39th birthday — he took the stand in his own defence. For more than two hours, defence lawyer Brad Mitchell guided Schreiner through journal entries he made prior to Brown's death.

Schreiner, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder charge, is not disputing that he killed Brown. The issue is whether he appreciated what he was doing when he stabbed her 80 times.

Prosecutor Melodi Kujawa said the issue for Justice Ron Mills to decide at the judge-only trial is whether Schreiner is criminally responsible for his actions.

"That is what the judge will have to turn his mind to when deciding this case. What was going on in his head in the night in question, and was he capable of appreciating the nature and quality of his act?" she said outside court.

The journal entries read in court were confusing enough to prompt Justice Mills at one point to ask Mitchell to backtrack.

This came when Schreiner went into a digression about how he believed that entrepreneur Elon Musk and the Duke of Monaco were conspiring to murder him when all three men were on a space station.

Believed wife was part of Illuminati

According to Schreiner, he had a "religious experience" when self-medicating with psilocybin on the Easter weekend in 2017. From that point forward, he started taking the drug on religious holidays and significant stages of the moon.

At a certain point, he testified that the hallucinations began happening without the magic mushrooms, and he began seeing coded messages in everything from social media posts to children's books.

Schreiner testified that he did not share his concerns with Brown because he believed her to be a high-ranking member of the Illuminati.

He testified that his behaviour caused friction in their relationship, but said Brown was also struggling with the emotional after-effects of having the couple's second child, and with the demands of her career as an instructor at what is now called Saskatchewan Polytechnic.

"We were just existing together," he testified.

Mitchell's questioning concluded Wednesday by focusing on the period about a month before the death of Brown.

"I was going downhill," Schreiner testified. "I was always in my head, home alone."

He said that he was hearing voices in his head every night and that he was fearful that the demons in the underworld were angry with him. The demons were also urging him to do more mushrooms, he said.

Schreiner's trial, which began earlier this year and resumed this week, continues Thursday, with the Crown cross-examining Schreiner. Psychiatric experts for the Crown and the defence are expected to testify next week.