LINDSAY TRIAL: Confessed murderer feared for his life in cell
It was kill or be killed, according to an admitted Edmonton murderer who blinded a cellmate in Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre last fall.
Mark Lindsay is charged with aggravated assault in relation to the KRCC stabbing. He is facing another aggravated assault charge for stabbing an undercover police officer last September in Barriere during a Mr. Big sting.
In Alberta, meanwhile, Lindsay is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Dana Turner, his 31-year-old ex-girlfriend — the crime for which the Mr. Big sting was launched in the first place, and an act Lindsay last week admitted to in court.
Lindsay took the stand on Tuesday, Aug. 21, in his own defence in B.C. Supreme Court in Kamloops.
Court also heard from the victim, 21-year-old Michel Fougere, who testified wearing sunglasses to mask his damaged left eye.
(Read earlier testimony here).
Fougere said he and Lindsay, 25, had a cordial relationship over the two weeks they spent sharing a cell at KRCC last October.
He described Lindsay as quiet, but said there were never any altercations prior to Oct. 20.
On that day, court heard, Fougere and Lindsay were engaged in a game of Scrabble — a game they played together on a regular basis in their cell — during a routine lunch-hour lockdown at the provincial jail.
Fougere said he was losing and Lindsay was keeping score.
"All I remember was that he grabbed the back of my head, said I was casting black magic on him and he jabbed me in the left eye," Fougere said.
"Did you feel the pencil go into your eye?" asked Crown prosecutor Will Burrows.
"Yes," Fougere replied.
"Did you feel like you were fighting for your life?" Burrows asked.
"Yep," Fougere said.
Fougere was asked by defence lawyer Don Campbell if he had ever talked to Lindsay about "black magic" or had any psychic communication with him. He said he had not.
Lindsay, meanwhile, said Fougere was part of a group of "serial killers" or "healers" out to get him for three years. He said Turner and the undercover Mountie were part of the same group.
Lindsay, the son of a former Edmonton police chief, said Fougere made it clear to him he was part of the group.
"He said something along the lines of, 'If that's why you killed Dana, you'd want to kill me, too,'" he said.
"It became clear to me he was a healer and I felt very endangered."
Lindsay said he began to fear for his safety.
"I didn't know if he was going to kill me in my sleep or not," he said.
"So, I slept with a pencil under my pillow."
Lindsay told court Fougere had "cast a spell" on him and he began to panic.
"I really believed I was dying or about to die," he said.
"I wasn't sure if the spell was killing me or he was about to kill me."
So, Lindsay said he decided to strike during the game of Scrabble.
"I got the pencil and I stuck it in his eye and he screamed," he said.
"I said, 'Stop working black magic on me' — just out of my panic.
"I was so convinced that what I had to do was kill him to postpone my death."
Lindsay's testimony will continue on Wednesday, Aug. 22..
At the conclusion of the trial, he will undergo a psychiatric evaluation at a forensic hospital in the Lower Mainland.
He is slated to appear in a Red Deer courtroom in January for a preliminary inquiry on a second-degree murder charge stemming from Turner's death.
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