Oak Bay father says he doesn't know why he didn't deny killing girls after attack
Credit to Author: The Canadian Press| Date: Thu, 29 Aug 2019 01:31:39 +0000
A Vancouver Island father faced intense questioning from a Crown attorney Wednesday about why he didn’t deny killing his two daughters or explain that they had been attacked in his apartment during his first conversation with his sister after the girls’ death.
Patrick Weir asked Andrew Berry at the man’s B.C. Supreme Court trial about notes he exchanged with his sister when he was in hospital after the alleged attack. The trial heard earlier that Berry was stabbed in the throat and chest and because he couldn’t talk, he used written notes to communicate with his sister, whose name is under a publication ban.
Berry told the jury that the first thing his sister said to him was: “I can’t even touch you right now.”
Berry is charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of six-year-old Chloe Berry and four-year-old Aubrey Berry in his home in Oak Bay on Christmas Day 2017.
The trial heard Berry’s sister wrote that it would be the last time he would see her and she asked whether there was something she needed to know.
“I love you. I’m sorry,” Berry replied in the note.
Six-year-old Chloe Berry (left) and her four-year-old sister Aubrey died on Christmas Day, 2017.
Weir asked Berry why he didn’t take that chance to deny that he had killed his daughters.
“Then you wrote, ’I’m sorry,’ ” Weir said, reading from the note. “What are you sorry for Mr. Berry?”
“You can try logic and parse this inside out,” Berry replied. “I don’t know, that’s what came out.”
Weir asked why Berry didn’t ask for help to find the dark-skinned man who stabbed him in the throat.
“Help me, everybody thinks I’ve killed my kids,” Weir said, giving another example of what Berry could have said in the note.
“You’re lying there being accused of the worst thing a father can be accused of … and you’re not trying to convince … ”
“I can’t talk, OK. Remember that. I can’t talk,” Berry paused. “I don’t know.”
Berry has told his trial he owned thousands of dollars to a loan shark, and the man’s two henchmen visited his apartment several times before the murders. He said he stored drugs for the loan shark named Paul.
The Crown has told the jury that it believes Berry killed the girls and then tried to kill himself.
Weir asked about the brother-and-sister notes regarding his suicide attempt. The trial heard his sister asked in the hospital if he tried to kill himself.
Berry’s note in reply read: “I don’t remember what I did but I tried suicide.” He told the jury he was referring to his attempted suicide the month before the murders, adding he was “just being literal.”
His sister then asks about his black eye and Berry replied he didn’t know, the court heard.
“You don’t say it became black in the course of an assault … You don’t write, because I was viciously attacked in my home,” Weir said. “You didn’t write down, we were horribly attacked in my apartment and we need to find the real killer.”
“I think I’m just digesting my eye is black,” Berry said.
The trial heard his sister asks what he did on Christmas. Weir asked if she changed from suicide to “social” questions.
“That’s my sister,” Berry said.
In the note Berry says Christmas was a “normal” day.
“It wasn’t a normal day,” Weir said.
“I’m not quite sure what I’m thinking at this point, but this is all … all mixed up,” Berry replied.
Weir asked Berry why he wasn’t more honest and forthcoming with his sister.
“She’s asking me police questions … she’s not being warm and nice and cosy. She’s not my loving sister at this point,” Berry said.
“What are you hiding from her at that point?” Weir asked.
“I’m hiding gambling debts, bag of drugs,” Berry replied.