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Toronto's Patrick Kirk Barrett, 39, murdered Lucita Charles, 28.
Credits: QMI AGENCY
TORONTO -- A devout Christian confessed he “lost it” when he fatally bludgeoned his girlfriend and then stabbed pages of the Bible to her chest, a jury heard Thursday.
In a videotaped statement played in court, a sobbing Patrick Barrett told homicide detectives Pauline Gray and Scott Whittemore that he became enraged after she terminated their engagement and wouldn’t have his baby.
Barrett, now 41, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to second-degree murder in the May 31, 2010 slaying of Lucita Charles, 27, the single mother of a severely-disabled son Mataeo, now 10.
Charles mistakenly believed she was pregnant and stated she would have an abortion -- her second with Barrett who reluctantly paid for an earlier one but discouraged her from having another, court heard.
She also tried to end their relationship and was asking him to move out. Barrett tried to dissuade her from aborting the child.
He prolonged his argument with Charles and took cigarette and Bible-reading breaks. Charles was laying in bed and pleading for him to stop so she could sleep. Barrett finally snapped.
“I lost it and I jumped up and said F this s--- and ... I went to the kitchen and grabbed a hammer and ... I hit her and she jumped up and I hit her again,” Barrett said.
The screaming victim fell and a cursing Barrett repeatedly struck her on the head with the hammer.
“God ... please I didn’t mean for it to happen, it just happened and I never put a hand on her before,” the weeping Barrett said in the interview.
Barrett then covered up the dead woman, retrieved his Bible from the kitchen, tore out one page, flipped to another piece of scripture and ripped another one and stabbed those pages to her chest with a large knife, court heard.
Barrett blamed God for not preventing his homicidal rage.
“I was cursing God and asking him well, if you’re so powerful why did you allow me to do what I did,” Barrett said.
Then, he stole $200 from Charles’ bank account and took a two-day road trip with his girlfriend Michelle Oosterhof to Montreal before being arrested by police in Oshawa.
He regretted hurting Lucita’s mother by killing her daughter.
“I mean you keep saying I’m a monster. It takes, it takes a monster to do what I did so,” Barrett told police.
The trial resumes Tuesday.
In a videotaped statement played in court, a sobbing Patrick Barrett told homicide detectives Pauline Gray and Scott Whittemore that he became enraged after she terminated their engagement and wouldn’t have his baby.
Barrett, now 41, has pleaded guilty to manslaughter but not guilty to second-degree murder in the May 31, 2010 slaying of Lucita Charles, 27, the single mother of a severely-disabled son Mataeo, now 10.
Charles mistakenly believed she was pregnant and stated she would have an abortion -- her second with Barrett who reluctantly paid for an earlier one but discouraged her from having another, court heard.
She also tried to end their relationship and was asking him to move out. Barrett tried to dissuade her from aborting the child.
He prolonged his argument with Charles and took cigarette and Bible-reading breaks. Charles was laying in bed and pleading for him to stop so she could sleep. Barrett finally snapped.
“I lost it and I jumped up and said F this s--- and ... I went to the kitchen and grabbed a hammer and ... I hit her and she jumped up and I hit her again,” Barrett said.
The screaming victim fell and a cursing Barrett repeatedly struck her on the head with the hammer.
“God ... please I didn’t mean for it to happen, it just happened and I never put a hand on her before,” the weeping Barrett said in the interview.
Barrett then covered up the dead woman, retrieved his Bible from the kitchen, tore out one page, flipped to another piece of scripture and ripped another one and stabbed those pages to her chest with a large knife, court heard.
Barrett blamed God for not preventing his homicidal rage.
“I was cursing God and asking him well, if you’re so powerful why did you allow me to do what I did,” Barrett said.
Then, he stole $200 from Charles’ bank account and took a two-day road trip with his girlfriend Michelle Oosterhof to Montreal before being arrested by police in Oshawa.
He regretted hurting Lucita’s mother by killing her daughter.
“I mean you keep saying I’m a monster. It takes, it takes a monster to do what I did so,” Barrett told police.
The trial resumes Tuesday.
