Accused denies being at scene of killings
Despite hours of interrogation by two veteran homicide detectives, double-murder suspect Emanuel Kahsai said he had nothing to do with the killings of his mother and another woman, court heard Thursday.
Kahsai said he hadn’t been at his mother’s Coventry Close N.E. home for about two months before she and a woman she cared for were fatally stabbed.
In the lengthy videotaped interviews by Det. Dave Sweet and Det. Lee Treit, Kahsai showed none of the bizarre behaviour he has shown in front of jurors hearing his case.
Kahsai has been banished from the courtroom and forced to watch the proceedings via CCTV, while for the most part being muted.
During the brief times Justice Glen Poelman has allowed the selfrepresented accused to be viewed and speak, Kahsai has gesticulated wildly, asked jurors to phone the FBI and posed vulgar questions.
In his Oct. 20, 2015, interview, he was first questioned by Sweet and then by Treit for several hours after the bodies of his mother and Julie Tran were found in their home.
I’m willing to bet that you were the last person to see your mom alive.
Kahsai is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Selamawit (Selma) Alem, 54, and Tran, 25, whose bodies were discovered the morning of Oct. 19, 2015.
It’s the Crown’s theory Kahsai killed his mother and Tran on Oct. 17, 2015, before driving to Edmonton, where he was arrested shortly after midnight on Oct. 20.
During his interrogation of Kahsai, Treit suggested Kahsai was responsible for the deaths of the two women.
“I’m willing to bet that you were the last person to see your mom alive,” Treit said, near the end of the lengthy interview.
“No,” Kahsai replied.
The accused went so far as to question the officers’ claim his mother had been murdered.
“She’s not dead. She can’t be dead,” he said.
“I was at the autopsy today, my friend, and your mom is dead, very much so,” Treit said.
But earlier in the interview, Kahsai conceded Alem was victimized.
Tapping a photograph of the deceased he began “this woman did not deserve ...”
“What she got,” Kahsai finished. Kahsai, who throughout the interviews was vague about where he was in the days preceding his arrest, was asked by Treit why he wasn’t curious about what happened.
“You haven’t asked me any questions about what happened to your mom,” the detective noted.
“I don’t wanna know,” the accused replied.
Jurors were told they will have a four-day weekend as Poelman said the Crown won’t have any further evidence for them until Tuesday.