National Post (National Edition)
Get a lawyer when tried for murder
For the last couple of weeks, a Toronto judge and jury have been getting a glimpse into what life may have been like for Dong Huang, may he rest in peace.
The body of the 40-yearold was found almost five years ago in the basement apartment in Scarborough he shared with his wife, Xiu Jin Teng.
With his wrists and ankles bound, and a puncture wound suggestive of a needle on his arm, Huang died of ligature strangulation — and not, as Teng first said, a heart attack.
Now 40, she is pleading not guilty to first-degree murder, and, unusually, is representing herself at trial — occasionally with skill, but more reliably, shrilly.
Her voice rising occasionally to a shout, a consistent feature of Teng’s self-defence is her hectoring and berating of Ontario Superior Court Judge Ian MacDonnell. Tuesday, for instance, MacDonnell attempted to ask Teng if, now that Crown prosecutors had closed their case, she was intending to call evidence or testify.
The judge had explained to jurors that of course, the burden of proving Teng’s guilt lies wholly with prosecutors, and that she is not required to do anything to demonstrate she’s innocent.
Then he turned to Teng, who got to her feet and immediately began barking at him. Though always accompanied by a Mandarin interpreter, Teng often addresses the judge directly in English.
“Your Honour, I repeat many times, you question me many times … I have many witnesses to call, four witnesses, why you ask me again? It’s obvious I have witnesses to call!”
MacDonnell then explained to the jurors, as he had before to Teng, that he’d determined her first witness “has no material evidence to give,” and that the other three are out of the country, two of them fugitives under the Immigration Act.
He then offered her, as he has before, the chance to play the evidence two gave at the earlier preliminary hearing and for the third, a videoed statement.
“Yes or no, Ms. Teng?” asked the judge.
“Your Honour, I told you many times,” Teng began.
“Yes or no?” the judge repeated. “You should have given me defence lawyer,” she snapped. “First point! Second point, why you ask me question, it is not reasonable.”
(There is an explanation for why Teng doesn’t have a lawyer, but the judge has ruled it isn’t relevant to the trial, so the jurors haven’t heard it, and thus neither can it be reported. And there is a so-called friend of the court, Richard Litkowski, who has cross-examined some witnesses and attempted to help Teng, over her strong objections.)
MacDonnell tried asking her a fourth time if she intended to call any evidence, “Yes or no,” at which point Teng immediately snapped, “Do you attempt to answer all my questions, yes or no?
“I didn’t say no,” she said. “I always say yes. I have witnesses to call; you cancelled my witnesses.”
Mildly, the judge said, “I’m obliged to say that is untrue.”
“I put on paper last week (her proposed witnesses),” Teng said. “Why cancelling?”
“You may sit down, Ms. Teng,” MacDonnell said.
“I’m not sitting down!” Teng snapped. “I need to call witnesses, I have many witnesses to call. Why you cancel? I need to call witnesses. You are biased! Who told you they (the witnesses) are not available?
“I not trust you,” she said. “You are not trustable. You are biased and evil judge! You make many mistakes!”
At this point, the judge told the jurors the only conclusion he could draw was that there was no defence evidence to be called.
“You lost your jurisdiction!” Teng shrieked.
“Thank you, Ms. Teng,” said MacDonnell.
“I’m not taking your thank you!” she said, her voice apparently lodged permanently in the same grating pitch.
MacDonnell told the jurors they can’t take Teng’s comments — surely a kindly way of putting it — into account.
“I have not responded to allegations why she is before the court without a lawyer,” he said. “It is not relevant.”
He then reminded the jurors that while there may be some things about the trial they don’t understand, “If our system of law is to work, it is fundamental that you take the law from me … Why she doesn’t have a lawyer is not relevant, and you must take my direction.”
He didn’t need to add, “Even if Ms. Teng doesn’t.”
With the evidence complete, the trial will resume with closing submissions on Jan. 3.