“A predator ready to pounce on his prey”: this is how the Crown describes Hosea Amorus Puhya, accused of the first degree murder of his wife Gisèle Itale Betondi in 2022. A series of events of verbal violence, harassment , jealousy and death threats would have led to the murder of the victim stabbed several times in front of his home.
Had the alleged murderer built up rage over time? Or was his action done out of spontaneous anger?
The 51-year-old clearly premeditated his crime, the prosecutor suggested to the jury. He accuses her of an extramarital affair with another man and fears an imminent breakup. “You’re a dead woman. Come out of your hiding place,” Hosea Amorus Puhya allegedly told the victim, according to evidence.
“She was tired of living in fear,” described the prosecutor, Philippe Vallières-Rolland.
The pleadings in the trial of Hosea Amorus Puhya for first degree murder presided over by Judge Catherine Perreault began Tuesday morning at the Montreal courthouse.
“I’m going to put a knife in your stomach,” “My children are never going to call you mom in front of me,” “I’m going to kill you.” These are just some of the threats the accused allegedly made to the mother of his children.
The conversations between the victim and her alleged murderer do not lie: the latter makes violent remarks on several occasions, underlined Me Vallières-Rolland.
He suggested the jury use “common sense” and ask themselves: did the accused really intend to kill his wife when he threatened to kill her?
He described a violent dynamic where the husband “did not accept that the victim ended the relationship,” painting a portrait of a jealous man who viewed his wife’s desire for freedom and emancipation in a reprehensible way.
Photos, video of the murder, telephone conversations and geolocation data are also part of the evidence presented to the jury in recent weeks. The victim’s DNA was found on the accused’s shoes.
The murder was captured by a surveillance camera in the parking lot of the apartment building where the victim resided. We see a hooded man dressed in black throwing himself at Gisèle Itale Betondi and stabbing her several times while she struggles. This terrible scene took place before the eyes of a neighbor and friend of the victim.
Defense lawyer Antonio Cabral argued that his client should be acquitted, since he cannot be identified in the video of the murder. The main witness to the murder also said she did not see his face.
The criminal lawyer also recalled that his client had “given his version of things” to the police during an interrogation which lasted five hours.
Judge Perreault will give her instructions to the jury in the afternoon. The accused remained unmoved, with his arms crossed and a nonchalant air, throughout the pleadings.
