Alleged election- night shooter says memory came back at 2nd interrogation

MONTREAL — Less than two days after Quebec’s 2012 election-night shooting, accused murderer Richard Henry Bain moved quickly to protect his legal rights and fumed as a detective quizzed him on his lack of remorse.

Bain has testified he has no memories of the lead-up to the attack that left a man dead, but an interrogation video taken two days after the event and shown at his first-degree murder trial Tuesday suggests he was on the defensive.

Investigator Daniel Prieur tells Bain it bothers him he isn’t showing any remorse.

Bain, who was briefly hospitalized after his arrest, explains he wasn’t well during his first interrogation a day earlier.

“I can tell you honestly, when I have regrets, I pray to my God,” Bain tells him. “Check your video camera. I prayed to my God three times this morning.”

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The charges against Bain are connected to events outside the Metropolis nightclub the night of Sept. 4 as then-Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois was inside giving her speech to celebrate the party’s election victory.

They include first-degree murder in the shooting death of lighting technician Denis Blanchette and attempted murder after the same bullet hit another stagehand, David Courage.

Bain, 65, has pleaded not guilty to all six charges, including three of attempted murder and two that are arson-related.

The Crown has alleged Bain approached the back of the club with a tactical assault rifle and fired a bullet and that the acts were politically driven. On Monday, Bain denied any political motive.

Alan Guttman, Bain’s lawyer, has told jurors he will argue his client is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

On Tuesday, the jury began watching video recordings of the accused’s police interrogation.

Bain said he still doesn’t remember the first attempt at questioning.

Asked by Prieur what murder and attempted murder charges mean to him, a confused Bain, complaining of a headache, mumbles, “I don’t know.”

Through much of the first interrogation, Bain keeps his head down, mumbles incoherently, ignores questions or responds with grunts and groans until transported to the hospital.

Bain insisted in his testimony Tuesday he still has no recollection of the night of the election: he said his last memories are of circling the Metropolis that evening and of having taken several pills earlier that day. The medication, he said, might have been anti-depressants.

His next memory is the second round of questioning early on the morning of Sept. 6.

“I realized I was really in trouble on the Thursday (Sept. 6) at the second interrogation,” Bain said, referring to two days after the election.

Bain appears more alert in the second video, answering Prieur directly and reciting the Lord’s Prayer before sitting down to a breakfast sandwich and adding, “If I ever needed you, it’s now.” 

He is later heard singing, “My God Is Awesome” and humming the tune, “You Are My Sunshine” before questioning resumes.

Asked by Prieur to explain what happened, Bain tells the officer he’s staying quiet on the advice of his attorney at the time, renowned constitutional lawyer Julius Grey.

“Yesterday I spoke to my counsel Julius Grey and he told me I should not talk,” Bain told the investigator.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bain recalled having what he called a “vision” of his mother, who died in 1997. The vision followed his consumption of pills outside the nightclub around 7 p.m.

“I saw my mother in front of me and she said: ‘Richard, what are they doing to us?’,” Bain said.

He said he’d had visions of her a few other times but never raised the issue with several psychiatrists following his arrest.

The trial continues Wednesday.

– Follow @sidhartha_b on Twitter.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press