Hikoalok claims to have no memory of sexual assault and murder of church librarian in May 2018

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Tyler Hikoalok claimed to have no recollection of the May 24, 2018, “vicious” sexual assault and brutally violent death of church librarian Elizabeth Salm.

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“I fainted. I don’t remember the rest of the day,” Hikoalok said after being questioned by attorney Michael Smith as his first-degree murder trial resumed after a long delay. said.

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Hikoalok gave similar testimony to the police who arrested him on May 27, three days after the attack, and was told he had been charged with murder and sexual assault.

According to previous testimony, he told the arresting officer, “What am I doing wrong?”

“I didn’t know you killed anyone,” he told officers.

Hikoalok was confronted with these statements during cross-examination Tuesday by barrister Brian Holowka.

“You knew there was a horrible incident in the Christian Science reading room and that you were involved in it,” Holowka said.

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“You knew exactly what incident you were arrested for,” Horowka said, accusing Hikoaroku of trying to “evade” an explanation to the police.

Hikoalok said “No” again. He often spoke in a quiet tone, sometimes appeared depressed, frequently asked his lawyers to repeat their questions, and often offered one-word answers.

He told the court that he was born in Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, grew up in a nursing home, moved to Ontario when he was nine, and lived in several group homes before moving to Ottawa a few years later.

“Tyler’s life leading up to this case wasn’t an easy one, and part of it is reflected in the evidence you’ve already heard,” attorney Brooke Laforest told jurors in his opening remarks. “By the age of 18, he had already gone through some trauma that would last multiple lifetimes.”

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Hikoalok said he had no relationship to his biological parents, never met his father, and began drinking and smoking marijuana from an early age during home visits in Nunavut.

“I was bullied a lot and it was tough growing up,” Hikoalok said.

Hikoalok attended Debbie Campbell Learning Academy, an alternative school in downtown Ottawa for about three years, and lived in various shelters and Good Hope Shepherds in the months leading up to the attack.

According to his testimony, Hikoalok woke up at a friend’s house on the morning of May 24 and drank the rest of the 26-ounce bottle of vodka he had in his backpack. He leaves and walks down Rideau Street where he meets a group of his friends and another friend in the street with a bottle of rum.

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According to Hikoalok, the friend put the rum in a plastic bottle and took it with him when looking for a place to drink.

“I chugged the rest and then threw the bottle away,” Hikoalok said after finding a spot “near our hotel on Rideau Street.”

He claimed to have no memory of anything other than what happened that day.

The next thing he remembered, he told his lawyer, was “waking up behind Vanier’s bus station.”

Hikoalok, who was shown the surveillance video, approached the Christian Science Library at 9:14 am that day and was seen leaving through a different exit more than an hour later, suggesting that the figure “looks like me.” ’ agreed.

“You’re not staggering… you’re not falling,” Horowka confronted Hikoalok in the video, saying he showed no signs of being drunk.

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“You don’t look like someone under the influence of alcohol or drugs,” the prosecutor said.

Hikoalok likewise showed no signs of poisoning when she showed up at her former school around 11:00 am that day. School staff previously testified that they found “nothing unusual” in Hikoalok’s demeanor.

In his testimony, Hikoaroku claimed to have no memory of visiting the school that day, talking to a teacher, preparing a calzone in the cafeteria, or joking with fellow students. , testified that he had no recollection of what happened in the reading room where Salum was killed.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I have no recollection… I didn’t know I killed anyone.”

The trial had already heard three weeks of evidence and testimony sought by Crown when it was adjourned to late September. succinctly explained.

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Hikoalok was examined during recess by Dr. Julian Gozier, a forensic psychiatrist at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Center. Laforest told jurors that he had completed Hikoalok’s psychiatric evaluation over the past few weeks.

The psychiatrist, who is still being asked to testify by the defense this week, interviewed Hiko Arok several times and ordered brain scans to help form his opinion.

According to the defense’s account, Gojer is expected to testify that the scan showed signs of neurological dysfunction, possibly fetal alcohol syndrome.

Psychiatrists explain the effects of the dysfunction on a person’s decision-making and other cognitive abilities, as well as “the susceptibility of people with fetal alcohol syndrome to fainting,” Laforest said.

Hikoalok plans to continue his testimony on Wednesday.

ahelmer@postmedia.com