Inuk woman’s killer faces sentencing after delays
Nellie Angutiguluk remained in a relationship with Kwasi Benjamin for more than a year before he killed her even though he had tried to end her life before.
“He tried to kill me. He wanted to kill me,” Angutiguluk told Montreal police Const. Jean-Philippe Tseng-Valiquette on Jan. 4, 2014, when he found her standing completely nude and covered in blood inside the couple’s apartment in Côte-des-Neiges after she had called 911.
Tseng-Valiquette testified on Wednesday at the Montreal courthouse as sentencing arguments finally began a full six months after Benjamin was convicted by a jury of second-degree murder for having killed Angutiguluk on May 18, 2015. The sentencing stage of the case was delayed for a few reasons. The presiding judge in the trial, Superior Court Justice Michael Stober, fell ill after the jury delivered its verdict. He died of cancer in August. Benjamin’s defence lawyer also asked that Benjamin undergo a psychiatric evaluation before sentencing arguments could begin.
Justice Pierre Labrie, the new judge in the trial, was presented with evidence that the jury did not hear because it involved charges that were pending against Benjamin when he was charged with killing Angutiguluk, a 29-year-old Inuk woman originally from Nunavik. Benjamin, 32, automatically received a life sentence when he was convicted of second-degree murder. Labrie will determine how many years Benjamin is required to serve behind bars before he is eligible for parole. Defence lawyer Louis Miville Deschênes asked that his client serve the minimum — 10 years.
Prosecutor Jean-Philippe MacKay asked that Benjamin serve at least 17 years. He noted that Louis Morrissette, the psychiatrist who evaluated Benjamin, predicts he will probably require a long stay at a halfway house before he can be released to society.
During his trial, Benjamin testified that when he was a child in Trinidad, and showed signs of having what might be autism, doctors told him he would never walk or learn to speak. He said: “the only doctor I believe in is God.” Morrissette said on Wednesday that Benjamin still has no faith in experts who might help him with his problem with alcohol.
The couple were still together in May 2015 even though Benjamin had agreed to follow a series of conditions that he not be in her presence or communicate with Angutiguluk while charged with the January 2014 assault.
On Jan. 4, 2014, she placed a call to 911 but did not manage to say much. A recording of the call was played for Labrie on Wednesday. Before Angutiguluk hung up a male voice could be heard repeating twice: “Give me the phone.”
Tseng-Valiquette and his partner were dispatched. The constable said that when they arrived they noticed a man at the entrance of the couple’s apartment building. The man kept his hands inside his coat pockets and appeared nervous as he walked past the police officers. Tseng-Valiquette said he asked the man, who turned out to be Benjamin, if he was the person who had called 911.
Benjamin said he didn’t make the call but appeared nervous. The constable said he then asked Benjamin if he could see his hands and he complied.
“His hands were covered in blood,” Tseng-Valiquette said adding he arrested Benjamin on the spot. He said he placed Benjamin in his police vehicle and then went inside the building. That is when he found Angutiguluk covered in blood. She refused to file a complaint against Benjamin, Tseng Valiquette said.
Despite the victim’s reluctance to file a complaint, the Montreal police proceeded with the investigation and Benjamin was charged. A detective who was assigned to the case said she had difficulty locating Angutiguluk to hand her a subpoena to testify. She said she learned the couple were living in a different apartment and that when she knocked on the door, in September 2014, Benjamin claimed from behind the apartment door that Angutiguluk had moved away. The detective said she heard a woman’s voice from behind the door and decided to wait in the building ’s lobby for a while.
A woman matching the assault victim’s description eventually came downstairs and the detective asked if she was Angutiguluk. The detective said the woman initially claimed to be Angutiguluk’s cousin but as the conversation continued it was apparent it was actually her. The detective said at one point Benjamin arrived in the lobby, with his toothbrush in his mouth, and listened to their conversation.
A prosecutor later decided to file charges alleging that Benjamin had breached the conditions of his release in the January 2014 assault. On May 11, 2015, one week before he killed Angutiguluk, Benjamin was charged with assaulting her a second time.
Angutiguluk’s cousin, Lisa Koperqualuk, was the only person to testify on the murder victim’s behalf on Wednesday. Koperqualuk, the founder of Saturviit, the Inuit Women’s Association of Nunavik, conceded she and her cousin were not close. Instead, Koperqualuk used the opportunity to draw attention to the problems many Inuk women face when they move to Montreal, especially those who have problems with alcohol.
Labrie is scheduled to make his decision on Oct. 31.