Accused murderer said she was ‘like a big kid’

Rachelle Denis told staff at the Royal Ottawa that she was “like a big kid” and expected to be found not criminally responsible in the 2010 killing of her ex-lover months after the Richmond chip truck owner cut her adrift.

Dr. Helen Ward, called as a Crown rebuttal witness after the defence rested its case, testified Thursday about the accused’s two-month stay at the Royal in 2013. Denis, 43, was being assessed on orders of the court, and Ward, a psychiatrist, testified that in that time the accused had no reported psychotic episodes or any disassociation from reality.

The jury has heard from two other forensic psychiatrists who testified about a series of documented psychotic episodes in the years leading up to and after July 2, 2010, killing of Tony El-Kassis, 60.

Ward also told court that while Denis, charged with second-degree murder, had no reported psychotic episodes, she had been prescribed anti-psychotic drugs.

Ward said the accused’s 2013 stay at the hospital was anything but smooth, with Denis breaking the rules by kissing a patient’s cheek and ending up in bed with the man the doctor described as an overweight Middle Eastern man in his 60s. Ward also made a point of telling court that Denis dressed like a 12-year-old and noted she sometimes wore pyjamas and slippers in the secured hospital unit.

No matter her troubled stay at the mental hospital, she didn’t want to leave and, according to observation notes from hospital staff, wanted to extend her stay. It was way better than going back to jail. So much better she told staff she’d rather kill herself than go back to it.

“I will stab myself in the heart before I go back there,” she told staff.

She didn’t, and could be seen sitting quietly in the prisoner’s box on Thursday as the doctor told the jury about her time at the hospital.

Ward, again through observation reports filed by other staff, told court that Denis wrote “Tony” on her arm. It fits with what the jury has heard about her fixation on Tony El-Kassis, who owned Tony’s Chip Wagon on Perth Street in Richmond.

Dr. Hy Bloom, who wrote a textbook on mental disorders and the law, testified earlier this week that she couldn’t get him out of her mind. She was obsessed with him, and consumed with the notion that El-Kassis raped her. Ottawa police investigated and the complaint yielded no charges.

They sent an officer to check on her, but did not have her committed to a mental hospital in 2009 because they didn’t think she was a risk to herself or the public.

Two forensic psychiatrists don’t believe she was raped, but the jury has heard that she has a fixed, firm belief it happened, to the point she still complains about physical pain from the unfounded allegation.

In another hospital report that Ward revealed to the jury, Denis told someone else on staff that “I hit a brick wall and ended up hitting a guy.”

Bloom has testified that Denis went into an automatic mental state when she plowed into El-Kassis, who died days later. Bloom also told the jury that her capacity to form intent would have been impaired.

Crown attorney Fara Rupert tried on Thursday to establish through Ward’s testimony that Denis was scheming, and that, as the prosecutor said in her opening address to the jury, she deliberately killed ElKassis, a father of four.

El-Kassis had told his wife in 2009 about his affair with Denis and said he wasn’t going to see her again. Denis then launched a campaign of harassment, calling the family’s home and chip wagon hundreds of times. When he changed phone numbers, Denis started showing up in person.

The trial continues on Friday.