'I want to take you back home'
father: Daughter died a week later, murder trial hears
By Sue Montgomery
The Gazette, March 29, 2006
John Drummond offered to take his daughter home after her boyfriend, Martin Morin-Cousineau, didn't bother greeting her when she arrived at their apartment after a trip to Italy, Morin-Cousineau's murder trial was told yesterday.
"I whispered in her ear, 'I want to take you back home. Do you want to go?' " Drummond told a Quebec Superior Court jury.
"She said no, so I said, 'If you feel you have to go, call me and I'll be here as quick as I can.' She said, 'No, Dad, I'll be fine.' "
Less than a week later, on Oct. 3, 2004, Kelly-Anne Drummond, 24, was found in a pool of blood on the kitchen floor of the Pierrefonds apartment she shared with Morin-Cousineau, 31. A 9.5-centimetre knife blade was lodged in the base of her neck. She died two days later.
Morin-Cousineau is charged with second-degree murder. The trial has already been told Morin-Cousineau didn't want Drummond to take the trip.
John Drummond said yesterday the accused just lay on the couch watching TV when his girlfriend came through the door.
"He said hello but didn't look up at us," Drummond said.
Defence lawyer Nellie Benoit asked Drummond if he'd witnessed any violence between the couple. "No physical violence, no," he replied.
Crown prosecutor Helene Di Salvo, who finished presenting her evidence yesterday, asked Drummond to elaborate.
"Throughout the time Morin-Cousineau was in my house, I'd frequently witnessed tension between them," he said. Drummond said he'd never seen the couple have a verbal argument.
Before Kelly-Anne took the trip to Italy to participate in an international lifeguarding competition, she told Marie-Claire Martin, her boss at the daycare where she worked, that her boyfriend was very abusive and wouldn't leave the apartment she had rented.
"I said we'd help her and give her an advance of three months rent," Martin testified. "She thanked me but didn't accept."
Once Drummond returned from Italy, Martin said, she seemed sad and anxious. The last time Martin saw her was on Friday, Oct. 1, 2004.
"She said, 'This weekend, everything will be decided if it works or it doesn't.' "
The defence is to begin its case today.
smontgomery@thegazette.canwest.com
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