A Montreal man on trial for the killing of his ailing wife told a senior nurse at the long-term care facility where she lived that he had suffocated her, a jury has heard.
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Linda Desgagné testified at the second-degree murder trial of Michel Cadotte that the accused asked to speak to her alone after informing other staff on Feb. 20, 2017 that his wife was dead.
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Desgagné says that is when a tearful Cadotte told her he had smothered Jocelyne Lizotte with a pillow and that he couldn’t deal with his wife’s advanced Alzheimer’s anymore.
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The nurse, who has more than 30 years experience, says she had attended a meeting requested by Cadotte a year earlier at which he asked whether Lizotte qualified for medically-assisted death.
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Desgagné says that Cadotte was told his wife did not meet the criteria for the life-ending procedure. He did not react strongly but said he would seek a legal opinion.
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Lizotte, 60, was in the late stages of the neuro-degenerative disease and was entirely unable to care for herself.