Accused says he was scared on night of fatal confrontation, but never angry
The man accused of killing Joe St. Louis outside a Windsor home two years ago was asked at his manslaughter trial how he could have been afraid of the larger man at the same time as he sought a confrontation with him.
“I don’t see how you can have it both ways,” assistant Crown attorney Craig Houle told Michael Hiller, who was on his second day under cross-examination by the prosecution.
Hiller on Tuesday repeatedly insisted he was never angry on the night of March 23 and early morning of March 24, 2018, when he encountered his wife, Mary Botosan, and St. Louis, a Lakeshore district fire chief and married man, at a Windsor bar near the family’s home.
Video and previous trial testimony point to different verbal confrontations at Jake’s Joint, where the three were eventually told to leave, and then later at a nearby home on Daytona Avenue.
A daughter testified Hiller, 45, had been yelling and slamming kitchen cabinets after he returned home that night, in the early hours of March 24. Botosan testified he appeared at the front door with a knife in his hand and then was knocking on the window of the pickup truck she and St. Louis, 51, were initially inside in front of the house.
The trial before Superior Court Justice Renee Pomerance heard earlier that Hiller subsequently rushed to the front door, pushing aside Botosan in the process, and yelled at St. Louis to get out of the house. This was just hours after a confrontation at Jake’s, in which Hiller said an angry St. Louis told him to stop badmouthing Botosan and that he would “kick my ass.”
St. Louis had been responding to what Hiller described as “just banter” — calling Botosan names like “whore” and “c---” at the bar.
The trial has heard that at this point in their relationship the pair, while still legally married and living in the same home, had agreed to separate.
“When you call your ex-wife, the mother of your children, a whore, that’s out of anger,” said Houle. “No,” replied Hiller.
“You were the person creating the conflict on this night,” said Houle.
Hiller testified he “felt afraid and intimidated” by St. Louis that night: “He’s much bigger than me.”
Why then, Houle asked, would he then leave “the safety of your own home” as soon as St. Louis and Botosan pulled up at the house a short time after his own return? “I don’t know,” said Hiller. “I don’t know either,” said Houle. Asked whether he had a knife in his hand, as Botosan had testified he did, Hiller was certain: “Absolutely not.”
But he was less certain about many other details of the night.
After what had gone on earlier at the bar, Houle suggested Hiller was angry and went out to the parked pickup demanding to know what the other man was doing at the home.
“It wasn’t a demand, it was a question,” said Hiller.
“Just innocuous, for informational purposes only?” asked Houle.
“I suppose so,” replied Hiller. “At 2:30 in the morning after being threatened at the bar, and you go up to the pickup, ask, ‘What are you doing?’ — for informational purposes only. You don’t get a response and you walk back into the house?” Houle continued. “Yes,” said Hiller.
Hiller said he was “upset” and “uncomfortable” that night but insisted he was never angry.
“I’m not an angry person,” he said.
“So when you call Mary a whore, you’re saying you weren’t angry?” asked Houle.
“That’s correct,” Hiller replied. Hiller said it was after he told St. Louis to get out of the house, and Botosan then said it was Hiller who needed to leave, that St. Louis grabbed him and began pulling him outside. The two men, who exchanged punches, then bumped up against a brick wall — Hiller said St. Louis hit his head — and then both men toppled onto the lawn, with St. Louis on top.
Houle described as “bizarro” Hiller’s recollection that he was the one underneath the much larger man. Botosan and their daughter both testified they screamed at Hiller to get off St. Louis, who ended up face-down on the ground.
“I was never on top of him,” Hiller insisted.
At the start of the trial last week, a forensic pathologist determined the likely cause of death was a chokehold around the neck that cut off the blood supply to the brain long enough for St. Louis’s heart to shut down.
“I never had my arm around Joe’s neck,” said Hiller.
“You’re not telling the truth,” said Houle.
The Crown and defence make their closing arguments on Thursday.