Accused murderer denies killing Nunavik woman in 2015

Kwasi Benjamin, 32, of Montreal, gave evidence in his own defence Feb. 13. He stands accused of second-degree murder in the May 18, 2015 death of Nellie Angutiguluk of Puvirnituq. (FILE PHOTO)

Special to Nunatsiaq News

MONTREAL—Kwasi Benjamin, 32, who stands accused of second-degree murder in the May 2015 death of Nellie Angutiguluk, took to the witness box in his own defence on Tuesday, Feb. 13, insisting he did not strangle the woman and that he thought she was sleeping.

Angutiguluk, 29, was a mother of three, had moved to Montreal from Puvirnituq in 2013, and was sharing an apartment with Benjamin in the Côte-des-Neiges district.

“It was a pretty good relationship, but we had our ups and downs,” Benjamin told the jury. “We would argue about money because she would take a lot of money for drugs and alcohol.”

Benjamin said that he would come home from work and she would already be drunk.

When she was sober, she was “like an angel,” he said. “When she was drunk, she was very violent.”

Over the course of the day, Benjamin told the court how the couple had met, what their relationship was like overall, and how the last two weeks—and final hours—were spent.

He recalled some details in precise detail while completely forgetting others.

He could remember precisely how many and which kind of alcoholic beverages the couple had the night of her death, at what time, and where.

But he could not remember what he was thinking when he was seen pausing in a surveillance video camera from his apartment building lobby during several trips in and out in the hours after Angutiguluk’s death.

He said he can remember finding her beside a closet with her hands pulling an alarm clock cord against her throat, but could not remember how her body was positioned.

He said he saw her with a cord around her neck trying to kill herself, but then said he did not see her actually doing it, and then said that he saw her after it was already on her neck.

He remembered telling a 911 operator that he found Angutiguluk in bed, unresponsive, adding that she was still breathing at the time.

But he testified that he did not actually check that she was breathing in the hours after her death, and did not know she was dead in the hours when he exited and entered the apartment repeatedly.

“I thought she was sleeping,” Benjamin said. “When she is intoxicated she would sleep a day or a day and a half.”

Benjamin said arguments over money occurred frequently in their relationship, especially in the last few weeks before Angutiguluk’s death.

He told the court that Angutiguluk would get violent during these discussions, and specifically, on the night of her death while they were at a bar.

“We were arguing about money,” Benjamin said. “She was hitting me, hitting me, hitting me, hitting me, hitting me.”

During cross-examination, the Crown prosecutor, Dennis Galiatsatos, asked Benjamin about his prior criminal convictions.

Among others, on May 12, 2015—one week before Angutiguluk’s death—he was charged with one count of breaching conditions and spent five days in jail.

He got out of jail the Friday before Angutiguluk’s death.

Galiatsatos showed the video recordings of Benjamin as he exited and entered the apartment building between 10 p.m. and 12:30 a.m. on the night of her death.

There were at least six video clips shared in court where Benjamin is seen walking slowly through the hallway, down the stairs and out the entrance, to return shortly afterward.

At one point, he stopped partway down the stairs, and then goes back up them.

“Why did you stop in your tracks and go back up them?” Galiatsatos asked.

“My main attention was on my girl,” Benjamin said.

Read our previously published stories on the trial of Kwasi Benjamin:

• Feb. 13 — Nunavik woman could have been killed in her sleep, expert says
• Feb. 10 — Nunavik woman was strangled to death, expert tells court
• Feb. 9 — Deceased Nunavik woman had no drugs in her system, expert says
• Feb. 8 — At Montreal murder trial, lawyers scrutinize forensic evidence
• Feb. 7 — Deceased Nunavik woman expressed “suicidal thoughts,” witness says
• Feb. 6 — Accused killer of Nellie Angutiguluk “wanted to get rid of her,” witness says

The trial was to have continued this week at the Palais de Justice in Montreal.