Crown closes case against Chan at murder trial
Thomas Chan said he set out to his father’s home to be safe because he thought everyone was turning against him at his mother’s house.
“I thought my mom was the devil at first,” Chan told Peterborough police detective Jo-Anne Elliott on the day he was arrested.
Chan, 21, is accused of second-degree murder in the stabbing death of his father, Dr. Andrew Chan, and attempted murder in the stabbing of Dr. Chan’s partner, Lynn Witteveen, at Dr. Chan’s Haggis Drive house on Dec. 28, 2015.
“No, no, I would never do that,” Chan replied to Elliott when she asked if he went to his father’s home to kill him.
“I went there be to safe, and then I felt he was turning on me, too. I wasn’t setting out to do anything. I just wanted to be safe and I did what I thought I needed to do to be safe.”
On Wednesday, the prosecution closed its case against Chan by playing his hourand-a-half video statement to police. Court saw that at first, Chan sat in the corner slouched in a chair staring at Elliott with his arms crossed.
“I don’t wish to answer right now,” Chan indicated several times to Elliott through the first several minutes of the interview.
About seven minutes into the interview, Chan leaned his head against the wall and started to cry when Elliott asked how close he was to his father.
“I love him,” Chan said.
Chan opened up after Elliott explained his family and friends deserve to know the truth about what led to his father’s death and Witteveen fighting for her life.
“Everything was fine and then all of a sudden, I don’t know where, I got a God complex,” he said, after admitting taking magic mushrooms earlier in the night.
According to earlier testimony, at some point it was decided Chan and three other friends were going to take magic mushrooms. Those friends have testified that Chan’s behaviour started to change in the early morning hours of Dec. 28.
Chan’s mother, Rosalia Vastano, said she was awoken shortly after 3 a.m. by her son. She, along with Chan’s sister, Christina , testified Chan called them the devil and Satan before running out of the house shoeless and shirtless toward his father’s home, which was a short distance away.
Chan explained to the officer that he felt like everyone was turning on him.
“I got scared,” he told Elliott. “I ran to my dad’s for help, in all honesty.”
The accused said he broke through his father’s window when nobody answered the door. Chan remembered the lights were on when he came in the house and could see his dad’s face turn “devilish,” court heard.
“Same with all my closest friends, my mom even,” he explained.
“All their faces just turned devilish. Their hair started growing and turning black, and I was just so scared.”
Chan told police he had a knife and it was a quick blur.
“It was me just acting as though I was fighting for my life. That’s how it felt,” he added.
Chan didn’t recall his father or Witteveen saying anything, stating everything was just mumbles, murmurs, and sounded like different languages.
Chan explained to Elliott he remembered coming at his dad, but doesn’t know where or how he hit him.
“I just remember seeing his face and it wasn’t his face,” Chan told the detective.
“I would never do that in my right mind.”
Elliott pressed Chan for more specific details, but Chan told her his brain is trying to shut things out.
“It makes me sick,” he said.
Chan returned to telling Elliott how he thought everyone was turning on him, and that he couldn’t understand why their faces were so scary. He explained the drug made him fee like he was the second coming of Jesus.
“And they were the devil coming after me. That’s the best way I can describe it,” he said, adding that it sounds stupid because he’s not religious.
At about the 30-minute mark of the interview, Elliott asked Chan if he meant to hurt Witteveen. He said no, but added he doesn’t know if he meant to hurt anyone.
“I don’t wish to answer because I don’t know. I was just scared. I was hallucinating,” he said.
Chan told Elliott he loves Witteveen and none of this would have happened if he didn’t do the drugs.
“No, no, no. I am a good person,” he pleaded.
Elliott then questioned Chan about his relationship with his father. He explained Dr. Chan was always busy with work when he was younger,.
The judge-alone trial will return to be Superior Court of Justice in Peterborough on Oct. 2 when Chan’s defence is expected to call their first witnesses in his defence.