Norbert Budai repeated over and over Wednesday while testifying in his own defence at his first-degree murder trial that he never meant to hurt his wife, Henrietta Viski.
The 41-year-old explained he only wanted to remove Viski’s dyed hair which, in his mind, represented an adulterous relationship she was having.
“I never wanted to hurt her. I didn’t think it through. This whole thing was a very bad accident. I don’t know how this happened. I cannot explain it, ” Budai told the court, speaking through a Hungarian translator on the second day of the judge-alone trial.
It is an admitted fact that Budai doused his estranged wife with gasoline from a red plastic jerrycan he brought to her Chester Le Boulevard townhouse on the afternoon of June 17, 2022.
Surveillance video shown in court shows Budai breaking into her unit before dousing her with gasoline in the foyer. She can be seen exiting the unit before Budai emerges and lights her on fire with a cigarette lighter. The 37-year-old mother of his three children died in hospital the following day from complications from the thermal burns that she sustained to approximately 80 per cent of her body.
Budai testified that he was heartbroken after learning his common-law partner of 20 years, with whom he had three teenage children, was having an affair. Budai said the family came to Canada as refugees in 2019 from Hungary where he said they experienced discrimination because of their Romanian heritage.
“During the 20 years I lived with her, she had black hair,” Budai told the court adding, “Unfortunately, it changed.”
When defence lawyer I. Loui Dallas asked what Viski changed her hair colour to, he replied “She changed her hair colour to … I would call it red. I really didn’t like it. I think the hair colour was the cause of her cheating on me.” Budai testified he wanted her to end that relationship to get the family back together.
After going to Viski’s townhouse on June 16, 2022, and having an argument where he threatened to set her on fire with gasoline, he left and said he got high on fentanyl and drunk on vodka.
Early the next morning, after staying up all night, he returned to the townhouse just before 7 a.m. and found the door was locked. Budai testified he went to get $30 more fentanyl, drank three to five more cups of vodka mixed with soft drinks and returned to Viski’s townhouse around 1:30 p.m. before leaving his SUV with the canister of gas. He testified he worked as a gardener and always kept the jerrycan since he used the gas for “machines to cut grass”.
Budai testified he couldn’t remember everything that happened that day but remembered he only wanted to remove Viski’s hair.
Dallas asked Budai what he thought would happen if he lit his wife’s hair on fire.
“I thought it would disappear just like when you put dry grass on fire,” he said. Shumka replied, “Were you not worried the rest of her would go up in flames if you simply tried to light her hair on fire?” Budai said, “I didn’t think of that and I was on drugs. That’s the truth.”
Budai explained he wrestled his wife to the ground and ran inside his ex-wife’s townhouse to get a bucket of water in an effort to extinguish the fire, so her body wouldn’t burn. Budai said he suffered burns to 70 per cent of his body and denied he wanted to kill his wife that day.
Budai also told his lawyer why he told an ambulance attendant, “I did this for my children.” Budai explained it was so he could get his family back together “just like we were when my wife had black hair.”
During cross-examination, Assistant Crown Attorney Matthew Shumka suggested Budai was angry that his wife was having a relationship with someone else and wanted nothing to do with him. “You didn’t want to hurt her but you did want to light her hair on fire? I’ve got that correct, right?”
Budai repeated that he didn’t mean to hurt her but only wanted to remove her hair.
Shumka said the hair was symbolic of the affair she was having with another man and told Budai that Viski didn’t want him anymore. “She did want me,” Budai responded.
When asked about the prior death threats he made towards his ex-wife for which he pleaded guilty in 2021, Budai said that he didn’t mean what he said and repeated that he really loved her.
Before court ended, Shumka showed Budai the surveillance video showing him breaking down the door to Viski’s unit on June 17th, before he doused her with gasoline. “I’m going to suggest if you had a canister of gas on June 16th, you would have lit her on fire then,” said Shumka. The Crown’s theory is that the couple had argued over the phone while Budai was in the parking lot of the townhouse unit and told her he wanted to get back together and she said no. Budai said he could not remember what the phone call was about.
As Viski emerges from the townhouse unit in the video, he can be seen following her out and setting her ablaze with a cigarette lighter. The screen lights up with fire and Viski is engulfed.
As the video was shown in court, Budai’s hands went up over his face and he looked upset. Budai told court he had never watched the video before. “Where did you point the lighter? It wasn’t her hair,” said Shumka.
The trial continues next week.