Defence lawyer Peter Royal says Tesfai Negasi killed his wife at the couple’s Edmonton home in July 2009, then dismembered her body in a way that was “the foulest thing you can imagine.”
But Royal also urged a four-man, eight-woman jury to look past the gruesome treatment of Selamawit Negasi’s body in deciding whether her husband is guilty of second-degree murder, or of the lesser offence of manslaughter.
“Don’t let it overwhelm you because the initial reaction is that visceral, disgusted response,” Royal said during his closing arguments Monday morning.
Crown prosecutor Tania Holland said Negasi’s disposal of his wife’s body – which included cutting her into 10 pieces, bashing in her face and putting her head in a bag of garbage – showed that the death was not an accident.
“The Crown submits that he took a lot of time and care in dismembering her,” she said.
“This is not someone who accidentally killed his wife and panicked.”
During the trial, court heard that the Negasis had a troubled marriage. Tesfai Negasi was often angry, argumentative and controlling with his wife.
Before her death, Selamawait had been planning to leave the marriage. She had booked an appointment with a divorce lawyer.
On July 5, 2009, the couple’s four daughters returned to the family’s Cherry Grove home after a picnic to find a strong smell of bleach and cleaning supplies in the house, towels in the washing machine, and their mother missing.
The couple’s daughters called police at about 9 p.m.
Negasi told a police officer over that telephone that he had killed his wife. He went to a police station a short time later, where he again admitted the killing. He had his wife’s body divided into numerous bags in the trunk of her car.
Chief medical examiner Dr. Graeme Dowling testified during the trial that the cause of death could not be conclusively determined, but that the most probable causes were the crushing of her skull, strangulation, smothering, or drowning. The dismemberment was done after her death.
Negasi has pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to a dead body. Royal said there is evidence to convict him of manslaughter, but possibly not enough to convict of the more serious charge of second-degree murder.
“We do not convict on possibilities, nor do we convict on probabilities,” he said.
He said that if jurors have a “lurking doubt” or a “doubt that leaves them uncomfortable about the case,” they must convict on the lesser charge.
He said Dowling referred to other possible causes of death, though they were not explored during the trial.
In her closing argument, Holland told jurors the Crown does not have to prove why or how Negasi killed his wife.
She said Negasi’s behaviour before, during, and after the death all indicate the intent to murder.
“He killed Selamawit Negasi,” she said. “And he meant to do it.”
Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Juliana Topolinski is set to give her instructions to the jury this afternoon.
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