Hubby killed cheating wife: Crown
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Cheated on for 15 years, a civil servant murdered his wife during a no-holds-barred fight in 2008, a Crown lawyer alleged Wednesday.
The second-degree murder trial of Demetrios Angelis began with prosecutor Julie Scott laying out the Crown's theory of what gave rise to the death of Lien Angelis, 38, in the couple's McEwen Ave. flat on June 8, 2008.
Jurors were told it's Angelis's second trial for the murder of his wife, but they were instructed not to delve into the legal history.
Wedding bells pealed in Montreal on Sept. 6, 1992, when the ill-fated couple pledged each other their lives until death did them part.
One year later, Lien took up with a lover, Alykhan Nathoo, who lurked in the background of the couple's marriage for the rest of her life.
"It's unclear at this time how much Mr. Angelis knew about him or when he found that Mr. Nathoo was more than a friend to his wife," Scott told the jury.
"(But) two days before Lien's death ... Mr. Angelis listed some of his complaints about his wife to a co-worker.
"One of them included that Lien had been cheating on him for many years."
The morning of June 8, 2008, a fight broke out.
Angelis straddled his struggling wife on the living room floor, Scott said.
His wife called for the police and tried to fight back, but Angelis put a hand over her mouth.
"Mr. Angelis sustained some superficial injuries," Scott said.
"And Lien Angelis died."
With that, the Crown called David Kenny, a neighbour who'd begun that June day doing laundry -- and finished it talking to police.
After rescuing his damp clothing from the building washing machines at roughly 7:30 a.m., Kenny amused himself on his computer.
"Then I became aware of the sound of a muffled argument," he testified.
Suddenly he heard a bang, and what sounded like a man saying "bitch."
"I knew someone was having a bad day," he said. "I heard nothing more."
With that, he left for his mother's house to trim her cedar hedges. But first he did a three-hour bike ride, timing his arrival for about 1 p.m. so his mother wouldn't feel obliged to provide him lunch.
When he finally returned, he saw cruisers outside and a police constable stationed outside the door to the apartment down the hall.
Someone had indeed had a very bad day.
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