Closing arguments are underway at the first-degree murder trial of Richard Henry Bain, the man charged in Quebec’s 2012 election-night shooting.
Defence lawyer Alan Guttman said the accused should be found not criminally responsible by way of mental disorder.
He asked jurors to weigh the evidence with the following in mind: “Was this anger? Or was this a man who was mentally sick?”
Bain faces six charges, including first-degree murder in the slaying of stagehand Denis Blanchette and three counts of attempted murder.
Blanchette was killed outside a Montreal nightclub that was hosting the Parti Québécois (PQ) election night rally on Sept. 4, 2012.
Guttman said the jury’s first order of business will be to consider the mental disorder defence: that Bain was probably psychotic due to an undiagnosed bipolar disorder when he allegedly opened fire.
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The Crown has argued Bain was of sound mind and that the shooting was premeditated and fuelled by his anger over the PQ victory.
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Following Bain’s arrest, a police officer reported the accused told him he “just wanted to shoot over their head but I got one and it jammed” and then later said it was by “grace of God” the weapon had malfunctioned.
“You’ll have to decide if it’s the words of an angry man or a man who is mentally sick,” Guttman said, repeating the question at different points as he went over the evidence.
WATCH BELOW: Richard Henry Bain in court
Guttman said jurors need to apply that question to handwritten notes by Bain to defence expert Marie-Frederique Allard during a 2012 meeting where the accused wrote “the plan was to kill as many separatists as I could.”
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Three different psychiatrists who saw Bain at various times following his arrest considered him delusional and Guttman said those notes could be viewed as the ramblings of a mentally ill person, as could his post-arrest conduct.
“It’s a puzzle, you have to put it together,” Guttman told jurors.
He reminded them that instead of being preoccupied with a first-degree murder charge, Bain was focused on his political “vision” for Montreal to separate from Quebec.
“It would have sounded crazy but, for him, there was nothing more important,” Guttman said.
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Jurors are expected to be sequestered sometime Friday.