Fredericton shooter ranted for hours, was muted during fitness hearing
During his fitness hearing in October of 2019, Matthew Raymond was often ranting and swearing about the justice system working against him.
On Thursday, at the continuation of Raymond's trial on four counts of first-degree murder, a member of Raymond's defence team presented court recordings from his first fitness hearing .
Some videos from court show Raymond dishevelled in orange jail garb, his hair long and his eyes wide, jabbing his finger in the air as he complained of his human rights being violated. He was eventually found unfit to stand trial and medicated against his will.
Raymond, 50, has admitted to 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. He pleaded not guilty as his defence team argues he was not criminally responsible on account of mental illness.
Yelling, singing when no one could hear
Raymond's fitness to stand trial was an issue since the beginning of his prosecution. Alex Pate testified Thursday that Raymond fired Nathan Gorham as his lawyer in the summer of 2018, and was assigned another lawyer - Alison Ménard. But he fired her, and asked for Gorham to be brought back in the summer of 2019.
Pate testified after Gorham was brought back on the case, Raymond was happy at first. But the relationship between them deteriorated when Gorham asked for a fitness hearing in the fall of 2019. At one point, Raymond said Gorham should "go in front of the firing squad," Pate said.
Pate testified that before Raymond was found unfit and medicated, the judge who was then on the case had created a room in the courthouse where Raymond was kept because he would not stop interrupting proceedings.
Raymond could see and hear what happened in court, but people in court could only see and not hear him. That did not stop him from screaming that someone in the jail was hired to kill him, that he will have everyone, including the judge, arrested, and that the jail staff were giving him rotten food. In a recording from Oct. 3, 2019, Raymond loudly sings parts of American Pie, The Gambler and There's a Tear in My Beer.
During the fitness hearing, the judge would bring him in at the beginning of each court day to see if he'd settle down and be quiet, but Raymond would yell and swear until the judge asked the sheriffs to take him to the other room.
On cross examination, Crown prosecutor Claude Hache asked Pate if Raymond was behaving this way at every single court hearing. Pate said no, sometimes he was "subdued." Hache plays a video where Raymond is correcting the judge on the type of camera a video was filmed on, but not yelling.
Court previously heard Raymond viewed hundreds of conspiracy theory videos, one from a YouTube conspiracy theorist who identifies himself as Rob Lee. On cross examination, Pate testifies that in these videos, Rob Lee never incites or encourages violence, nor promotes killing people.
Court was expecting to hear from Raymond's mother Shirley Raymond on Thursday, but that has been rescheduled to another day because Pate's testimony has taken longer than expected.
A shift in 2017
On Wednesday the defence called Raymond's sister Patricia and her husband Geoffrey. Their last names and photos are under a publication ban ordered by Justice Larry Landry.
The two testified about seeing a change in Raymond in March of 2017. Geoffrey said he started talking about conspiracy theories and how the earth is flat and space doesn't exist. Geoffrey said they thought about getting mental health support for Raymond a month before the shooting, but he said he didn't have the time. They said they never expected him to shoot and kill four people.
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.
