Matthew Raymond arrives at Court of Queen's Bench, in Fredericton, on Sept. 15, 2020.Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press
Matthew Raymond is back on the witness stand today as his murder trial in connection with the 2018 mass shooting in Fredericton enters its eighth week.
Raymond, 50, is charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of Donnie Robichaud, Bobbie Lee Wright and Fredericton police constables Robb Costello and Sara Burns in the parking lot of an apartment complex in August 2018.
The defence admits Raymond shot the victims but is trying to prove that he should be found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.
Last week, Raymond told the court he was sorry he killed the victims, but at the time it was something that had to be done to eliminate “demons” out to get him.
Today, defence lawyer Nathan Gorham is showing more of the videos and pictures Raymond had saved on his computer in the months leading up to the shootings.
Raymond had been viewing videos on a conspiracy theory website run by someone who identifies himself as Rob Lee.
Raymond said he had been reporting to Lee about people he had identified as “demons.” He said at the time he believed he had the power to detect them.
Raymond said he had a falling out with Lee after identifying a particular person as a demon and he began to think that Lee was “a deceiver.”
Gorham asked what Raymond meant by that. “A liar, not standing up for what he believed about demons,” Raymond replied.
Raymond told the court that at the time he also believed that churches were being run by demons.
Gorham showed pictures of TV evangelists and the Pope on which Raymond had written numbers such as 666 to denote they were evil.
Other videos showed that Raymond had the same view of the major banks, phone companies and Microsoft – whom he accused of doing things to his computer.
The trial continues this afternoon.
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