ST. JÉRÔME – Cardiologist Guy Turcotte drank the equivalent of between one and two bottles of wine the night he stabbed his children to death.
In terms of windshield wiper fluid – which was his drink of choice to kill himself that night – that represents a "massive amount," according to the estimate given Tuesday by a pharmacologist testifying for the defence at Turcotte’s first-degree murder trial.
Louis Léonard couldn’t say over what time period Turcotte drank the purple fluid overnight Feb. 20-21, 2009, nor could he say with certainty how much the accused drank.
But tests showed a level of 310 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood in Turcotte’s system, so he probably drank between 710 and 910 mL, Léonard estimated during his second day on the stand.
"His brain would have difficulty adapting to that," he said of Turcotte, who drank alcohol only occasionally.
Léonard said drinking methanol (the toxic ingredient in windshield washer fluid) or ethanol (grain alcohol) can slow the brain’s ability to deal with information. Drinking either substance can also affect the part of the brain that controls emotions, he said.
Of the approximately six per cent of people who successfully killed themselves with methanol, the average blood level was 350 mg per 100 mL of blood, Léonard said. Turcotte’s was 310.
"His condition at Sacré Coeur (Hospital) was critical," Léonard testified. "There was a good chance he would have died had there been no intervention."
Turcotte, 39, has already testified that he remembers flashes from the night when, distraught and angry over the end of his six-year marriage, he stabbed Olivier, 5, and Sophie-Anne, 3, multiple times in their beds.
He remembers reading a string of romantic emails between his wife, Isabelle Gaston, and Martin Huot, a mutual friend of the couple. He remembers crying and wanting to die. He remembers his children telling him "nooo" in self-defence and rolling away from his reach in their beds.
He remembers drinking windshield wiper fluid by the glassful and still recalls the taste.
He remembers hiding under his bed after hearing police officers’ voices in his rented home in Piedmont the next morning.
"We’re not talking about a blackout here, but more of a gray-out," Léonard said Tuesday, the trial’s 24th day. "There are elements that are missing and others that stay in the memory."
Three witnesses who were working at St. Jérôme’s Hôtel Dieu Hospital on Feb. 21 when Turcotte was brought in for care have testified Turcotte told them he drank about two litres about 8 o’clock the previous night.
Crown prosecutor Claudia Carbonneau is to cross-examine Léonard on Wednesday.
Both the Crown and the defence have admitted that Turcotte killed his children, but the question to the jurors is: Did he intend to?
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