Jurors see a different Kahsai in police interview

Jurors saw a different Emanuel Kahsai on Wednesday from the one whose disruptive behaviour has him banished from his doublemurder trial.

In a videotaped interview with Calgary homicide Det. Dave Sweet, played for jurors, Kahsai sat calmly and lucidly answered questions posed to him for hours.

“I’m really not a bad person,” Kahsai told Sweet, in the Oct. 20, 2015, interview.

In the hours-long interrogation, Sweet questioned Kahsai about the brutal stabbing deaths of his mother, Selamawit (Selma) Alem, and Julie Chan.

Kahsai is charged with firstdegree murder of Alem, 54, and second-degree murder of Chan, 25.

Both women were found dead in their Coventry Close N.E. home where Alem worked as a caregiver for the mentally challenged Chan.

It’s the Crown’s theory Kahsai murdered the women Oct. 17, 2015, and fled to Edmonton, where he was arrested Oct. 20.

Kahsai has been banished from his own trial because of his disruptive behaviour.

He has been forced to watch proceedings from a remote courtroom with an audio and video feed, but has been primarily muted by Justice Glen Poelman.

On occasion, the Court of Queen’s Bench judge has allowed Kahsai to speak and appear on CCTV screens, but the accused has been quickly muted because of his behaviour, which includes gesticulating wildly and repeatedly asking jury members to call the FBI.

In his interview with Sweet, Kahsai was much less animated and more focused on the conversation at hand.

At one point, Sweet told Kahsai a witness told police he had threatened to kill his mother.

“It’s a lie, it’s a lie,” he said. “I’m not the man … that people put me out to be,” the accused killer said.

“I love my mom.”

When Sweet told him they found his mother’s vehicle just blocks from where he was arrested in Edmonton, Kahsai’s tone seemed to change somewhat.

“It does look bad,” he said. Jurors will continue watching the interview on Thursday.