by Tony Spears
Ottawa Sun
The alleged Vanier axe murderer — who complained of “demonic possession” while kennelled in “deplorable” conditions on the suicide range at the Innes Rd. jail — should be found not criminally responsible for his actions if the jury concludes he killed Jennifer Stewart, Adrian Daou’s defence lawyer said.
Daou initially confessed to the killing but has pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder in the August 2010 death of the sex worker.
On Wednesday defence lawyer Robert Carew outlined his case to the jury and to presiding Judge Robert Maranger.
“The reliability of (Daou’s) statements is in dispute,” Carew said.
Daou had made his first admission while in jail on unrelated charges on Feb. 25, 2013, begging his police confessors to take him away from Innes and straight to a federal pen.
It was not his first bid for a change of scenery, the court heard.
Psychiatrist Dr. Shirley Brathwaite testified she had met him three days before his alleged confession.
“He wanted me to use my influence to get him out of the jail,” she said.
She’d met with him because of a referral from jail psychologist Dr. Ian Shields, who’d ordered Daou to be kept on suicide watch.
“It’s draconian,” Shields testified of the spartan conditions.
Daou was kept alone in a concrete cell dressed in what inmates call a “baby doll” gown — a sleeveless, seamless garment made of unrippable fabric so inmates can’t tear off strips and use them to hang themselves.
Every ten minutes guards peered through a window set in the heavy metal door to make sure Daou was still alive.
On Feb. 15, 2013 — when Shields first met him — they spoke through a hatch in the door.
“He indicated that he had been biting himself,” Shields said.
Five days later they met again, this time in Shields’ office. The doctor, who believed Daou might have been hallucinating, endured Daou’s “gangster talk” and “breezy, tough facade” before the accused made a startling admission.
“He was speaking about demonic possession,” Shields said. “He was talking about cutting off one of his fingers. He thought his finger was possessed.”
Shields asked if Daou had tasted human flesh.
“He pointed to a wound on his right arm,” said Shields, who believed it was a possible bite mark.
Shields also asked if Daou had considered eating a previous cellmate.
“He laughed at (the question) in a peculiar way,” Shields recalled. “It was an odd cackle.
“He may not have been surprised by the question.”
The trial continues.