Accused killer's former cellmate admits Kwasi Benjamin never told him he killed his girlfriend
Former inmate under cross-examination in Benjamin's trial for murder of Nellie Angutiguluk, 29
A key Crown witness in the second-degree murder trial of Kwasi Benjamin testified Tuesday that he heard from the accused killer that his girlfriend, Nellie Angutiguluk, had been suicidal.
Angutiguluk, 29, an Inuk mother of three who'd moved to Montreal from the Northern Quebec community of Puvirnituq, was found dead in an apartment in Côte-des-Neiges on May 18, 2015.
His defence lawyer, Paul Skolnik, is cross-examining XY on his second day in the witness box at Benjamin's trial before Quebec Superior Court Justice Michael Stober and a jury.
"Let's get to the heart of the matter," said Skolnik. "He never told you he killed that girl."
"He never told me that," XY agreed.
Under questioning from Crown prosecutor Dennis Galiatsatos yesterday, the witness said Benjamin told him Angutiguluk liked to play sexual games with a belt, hanging herself from the closet.
Today, Skolnik referred to a November 2015 interview XY gave to police investigators while he was detained in the Bordeaux jail.
XY said Benjamin told him of "dangerous" games Angutiguluk would play with a belt in the closet.
Skolnik said nowhere did the witness ever use the term "sexual games" in that statement. XY agreed that he did not.
Skolnik asked about a point in the police interview in which XY said Benjamin told him Angutiguluk would play with the belt in the closet, and she said all the time she wanted to commit suicide.
"I related what Mister Kwasi had told me," answered the witness.
XY confirmed that Benjamin told him the incidents with the belt happened before the night Angutiguluk died, and not on the night she died.
The trial continues at the Montreal courthouse.