Raymond's family considered getting him mental-health help a month before shooting

Matthew Raymond's family were planning on contacting mental health services a month before Raymond shot and killed four Fredericton residents.

Geoffrey, whose last name is under a publication ban, is the husband of Raymond's sister. He testified Wednesday the family was concerned for Raymond's mental health after he began talking about conspiracy theories.

Geoffrey said his wife Patricia asked him in July to "stop by mental health," and see what can be done.

"I just didn't have time, I never did," Geoffrey testified.

He said it never occurred to him for one moment that Raymond would end up shooting Donnie Robichaud and Bobbie Lee Wright, then Fredericton constables Sara Burns and Robb Costello when they responded to a call of shots fired at 237 Brookside Dr. on Aug. 10, 2018.

Raymond, 50, has admitted to the killing but pleaded not guilty. His defence lawyers are arguing he was not criminally responsible on account of mental illness.

Raymond's sister Patricia and her husband Geoffrey testified Wednesday for the fifth week of Raymond's criminal trial. Their last names and images are under a publication ban imposed by Justice Larry Landry.

Patricia cried as she described the changes in her brother in the spring of 2017, no longer spending time with her and her children. In the prisoner's box, Raymond wiped away tears. He waved at her slightly but she did not look at him.

Patricia testified she had an amicable relationship with her brother, although growing up their relationship was strained by disagreements. But in the spring of 2017, an email from Raymond marked the beginning of a 13-month estrangement.

In the email Raymond was asking her to sign a petition that contained anti-Muslim sentiment. She asked him to stop sending those kinds of emails. He replied with a multiple-sentence email that ended with "I won't be coming over till you wise up."

Geoffrey testified he never reached out to Raymond in those 13 months because "he was angry at me."

"He had these ideas that he knew what was really going on, and we weren't supportive of that."

In the past days testimony Raymond's defence team presented a narrative of Raymond's interests moving from biking and video games to anti-Muslim, transphobic and satanic conspiracies. The material on his computer showed the shift happening in 2017.

Patricia testified before the shift, she trusted Raymond with her children. Geoffrey said Raymond was a "typical" uncle who was "good" to his kids. Patricia described the children visiting Raymond when he worked at the produce section of a Superstore in Fredericton, where he would hold them up in the air and hug them.

She said he never missed her kids' birthdays, but after March of 2017, he missed two birthdays, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The next time she saw him was in April of 2018, when his mother was selling her house.

She said she didn't interact with him much, except when she was leaving. He told her he's been biking in the woods a lot, and she asked him to watch out for ticks. He replied that's all a hoax and Lyme disease doesn't exist.

She said he told her the government either released the ticks or poisoned them. That's when she left.

"The word that comes to mind is just crazy. How could you think that?" she testified.

Geoffrey said he spoke to Raymond in April, and he shared "odd" beliefs relating to a theory that an entity is poisoning the air, and that the government is controlled, that rock bands are evil, and that the earth is flat and space didn't exist. He also told him the Humboldt Broncos bus crash and the Sandy Hook school shooting were made up.

The day of the shooting

On Aug. 10, 2018, Patricia said she was driving her son to camp. When she got there, she saw the news of a shooting on the north side of Fredericton, and drove back with her son still in the car. She said when she got more details about where the shooting was, she began worrying about Raymond, as she knew he lived in one of the buildings in that apartment complex.

"We thought that maybe Matthew had gotten into something ... like a fight... oh he's gone and opened his mouth and got into a fight with someone."

She said it did not cross her mind that Raymond had shot and killed people.

Defence lawyer Nathan Gorham asked her what she thought once she found what Raymond was accused of doing.

Patricia paused and began crying.

"The people who got shot and their families," she said.

One visit

Patricia said she saw Raymond at the Restigouche Hospital Centre, where he was being held after being found unfit to stand trial.

"I couldn't look at him," she said.

Patricia said she couldn't speak much that day at the hospital. She said Raymond started by telling her he loved her and her children, then told her she should not trust their mother, and that he should call another lawyer and get her to defend him.

"I just wanted him to listen to the lawyers and take his medications," she said.

As she was leaving the courtroom, Patricia hugged Robb Costello's mother, who has been attending court every day since the trial began in September.

Schizophrenia diagnosis

The Crown and defence have agreed Raymond had a mental illness at the time of the shooting. Dr. Ralph Holly testified Friday he diagnosed Raymond with schizophrenia.

The agreement means that to get a not-guilty verdict, the defence must prove to the jury, on a balance of probabilities, that Raymond's mental illness either stopped him from knowing the nature and consequences of his actions, or knowing what he was doing was wrong.

Court also heard from Alex Pate on Wednesday. He's a member of the defence team who reviewed Raymond's computer data and also interviewed him in the fall of 2018 and summer and fall of 2019.