Trial of Hosea Amorus Puhya | The video of the murder of Gisèle Itale Betondi presented to the jury

A boy plays in the parking lot while his mother places the baby in the car. A banal morning scene. Then, the horror. A man appears and stabs the mother. He attacks her. Again and again. Extremely violent, the video of the murder of Gisèle Itale Betondi was shown to the jury on Tuesday at the trial of Hosea Amorus Puhya.

A heavy silence reigned in the courtroom. In the box, the accused was unmoved, almost blasé. On the screen, long seconds of horror. The murder of a young mother as she strapped her children into the car to take them to daycare. The Crown presented this key evidence on Tuesday at the trial of Hosea Amorus Puhya, accused of the first degree murder of his ex-wife.

According to the Crown’s theory, Hosea Amorus Puhya stalked, spied on and murdered his ex-wife, after his release from prison, on September 8, 2022 in the LaSalle borough of Montreal. A few days earlier, he had threatened to kill her. Earlier this year, before being incarcerated, he made a similar threat. “I’m going to put a knife in your stomach and you’re going to die,” he reportedly said.

Surveillance videos from the Société de transport de Montréal presented to the jury on Tuesday allow us to trace the journey of a man believed to be Hosea Amorus Puhya. The day before the murder, the man can be seen leaving Angrignon station, then taking a bus towards LaSalle. We then see the man lurking in the evening in the parking lot of the victim’s building.

That evening, Gisèle Itale Betondi told her neighbor that she had seen her ex-husband near her home.

The next morning, a man takes the same route. In the images, we follow him on the metro and on the bus across the city. The camera then turns to Gisèle Itale Betondi. The woman leaves her home around 8:40 a.m. with her two children. She is holding a toddler in her arms. She was supposed to leave her children with her neighbor, but she decided to take charge of her life that day.

“What are you doing outside?” It’s not safe,” says the neighbor to her friend. “I don’t want to let him control my life. I will call the police if I see him,” replied Gisèle, according to the neighbor’s testimony on Monday.

Gisèle Itale Betondi straps her boy into the car, on the right side of the vehicle. She faces the parking lot. Suddenly, a man emerges from a wooded area, to the left of the camera. Dressed in black, the attacker jogs towards his prey. The victim doesn’t see it coming.

The scene is unbearable. Gisèle almost succeeds in freeing herself from his hold, but her tormentor holds her back. He attacks her. The violent stabbings are clearly visible. The neighbor appears on screen halfway through. She watches the scene with fear. The assailant seems about to leave, but returns to continue his butchery. He finally runs away.

Then, an almost miraculous scene: Gisèle Itale Betondi gets up and runs towards the building. However, she has just been stabbed around twenty times. We no longer see her in the images, but Gisèle collapses in the arms of her neighbor. She has time to identify her assailant: “It’s my husband. Call 911.”

This chilling call was played in the courtroom Monday. Relatives of the victim sobbed during the call punctuated by unbearable screams. ” My friend ! My friend ! », yelled the neighbor.

After the murder, the jury was able to see the route taken by the attacker. First, he runs down an adjacent street, before slowing down and walking quickly to Newman Boulevard in LaSalle. A few minutes later, he boards a bus towards the Angrignon metro station. He then waits in line to buy a metro ticket, wearing headphones.

M^e Jade Coderre and M^e Philippe Vallières-Roland represents the public prosecutor, while M^e Antonio Cabral and M^e Vanessa Sadler defends the accused.