Howard Richmond’s trial in wife’s death resumes in Ottawa
A Canadian soldier on trial for murdering his wife broke down in sobs during a videotaped police interview when her body was found stabbed in a wooded ditch days after he reported her missing in July 2013.
PTSD left Howard Richmond’s brain ‘a bit scrambled,’ court hears
Melissa Richmond’s lover ‘scared’ about her soldier husband’s reaction
Howard Richmond admits to killing wife while suffering from PTSD
Howard Richmond is seen in the video cupping his hands in front of him and rocking back and forth on a couch, and later banging his fists, saying “No, no,” when the officer interviewing him leaves him alone in the room on July 28, 2013.
“I hope she didn’t suffer,” he tells his close friend Jeff Thornton, who enters the room near the end of the 40-minute video. Court heard last week that Thornton admitted he was having an affair with his friend’s wife, Melissa Richmond.
Howard Richmond, a warrant officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, admitted to stabbing his 28-year-old wife with a knife and screwdriver at the outset of his trial last week but he pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder.
His lawyers have argued he is not criminally responsible because he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, after serving six tours of duty.
The Crown has argued that the couple’s marriage had been deteriorating for several months before the killing, and that Melissa Richmond had been considering leaving her husband.
Howard Richmond, then 52, reported to police in 2013 that his wife went for a car ride around 11:30 p.m. on July 24, 2013, to “clear her head” but never returned to their Winchester, Ont. home, located in a rural community about 60 kilometres south of downtown Ottawa.
Her body was found in a deep ditch near South Keys Shopping Centre days later.
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