Accused threatened wife, trial told

Two months later she was killed

After Maria Altagracia Dorval told Edens Kenol she was leaving him, he called her between 40 and 50 times a day. Two months before she was found stabbed to death, Kenol showed up at her apartment armed with a knife and warned that if she left him, he would kill her.

Crown prosecutor Jacques Dagenais set that scene for a five-woman, seven-man jury Wednesday, the opening day of Kenol’s first-degree-murder trial.

Kenol has pleaded not guilty.

Dorval had started seeing someone else, Dagenais said, and one evening Kenol was waiting outside his estranged wife’s apartment in Montreal North and saw the man leave. Kenol chased him in his vehicle, forcing the other man to run red lights in order to get away, the prosecutor said.

The next morning, Kenol was in a crying rage and told someone that he was going to kill Dorval, then himself.

A week later, on Oct. 16, 2010, Dorval went to a party for her 28th birthday, and got a lift home with someone at about 2:15 a.m. on Oct. 17, Dagenais told the jury.

The man who gave her a lift waited until she was inside her apartment before driving off, but spoke on the phone with Dorval while driving home. But once the driver got home, the call was suddenly cut off. He tried calling back but the line was dead, so he called police.

Dorval, who had three children with Kenol, had been stabbed several times and was declared dead at 2:45 a.m., half an hour after being dropped off after her birthday party.

Kenol, who turns 37 Thursday, was arrested at 1:15 p.m. that day, after family friends notified police that Kenol showed up at their house saying he wanted to hide from the police.

Jean-Baptiste Belneau, a friend of the Dorval family for many years, testified Wednesday that the day before the death, Kenol showed up at his door saying Dorval had decided to end the marriage.

“He asked me what he could do to get her back,” Belneau said. “We talked for about an hour or an hour and a half, and I promised I’d do what I could.”

Kenol left Belneau, but continued to call him that day to ask whether he had spoken to Dorval.

“I told him to give me a bit of time,” he said.

Belneau said that during the last three phone calls, he noticed Kenol’s tone of voice becoming increasingly aggressive and loud.

“I was a bit panicky by that, so I called her and said: ‘Listen, Edens came to see me and has been calling me all afternoon.’ ”

Dorval told Belneau she was getting ready to go out so couldn’t talk, but the two stayed on the phone for about 12 minutes, he testified.

Then Kenol called Belneau again.

“I told him to come over but he said: ‘I know what I’m going to do’ and he hung up,” the witness said. “He never answered his phone after that.”

Under cross-examination, defence lawyer Anne-Marie Lanctôt asked Belneau when he found out he was going to be a witness in the case.

“Four days ago,” he replied.

“And the first time you met investigators was very recent?” she asked. “Yes.” It was also revealed that Dorval’s father, who was present in the courtroom Tuesday, didn’t attend his daughter’s wedding because he didn’t agree with her choice of husband.

The trial continues Thursday.