Nunavut court: doctor testifies that Kingwatsiak could form intent

Peter Kingwatsiak of Cape Dorset outside the Nunavut Court of Justice June 22. He is currently on trial for first-degree murder, breaking and entering and aggravated assault, in two separate incidents in 2010. (PHOTO BY THOMAS ROHNER)

Peter Kingwatsiak of Cape Dorset shot his step-brother in the forehead in 2010 out of jealousy, and not because of the effects of the gasoline fumes he sniffed shortly before the shooting, the Nunavut Court of Justice heard June 22 from an expert witness.

That’s what a forensic psychiatrist testified in an Iqaluit courtroom, on the first day of Kingwatsiak’s murder trial.

“It seems relatively clear to me that Mr. Kingwatsiak was distressed over the threat to what was probably a highly fantasized relationship,” Dr. Philip Klassen testified.

That distress led Kingwatsiak to the simple motive of jealousy when he shot his step-brother, Mappaluk Adla, on Sept. 20, 2012, Klassen told Justice Bonnie Tulloch, who’s hearing the trial alone, without a jury.

Kingwatsiak is currently on trial at the Nunavut Court of Justice for two criminal charges: one count of first-degree murder, and one count of breaking and entering with the intent to commit an indictable offence, in this case an alleged aggravated assault on his uncle.

The court heard earlier the same day that Kingwatsiak has admitted to shooting and killing his step-brother in the head in 2010, and that this trial will revolve around whether Kingwatsiak had the capacity to plan and understand what he was doing at the time of the shooting.

Kingwatsiak also admitted, the court heard June 22, to slashing his uncle, Manu Kingwatsiak, in the face in his uncle’s home shortly before committing homicide in the home of his step-brother.

The break and enter with intent charge relates to the incident at Kingwatsiak’s uncle’s home.

Klassen said he spent about six hours over two days in 2012 interviewing the accused at a correctional centre in Ottawa.

Klassen concluded from those interviews that Kingwatsiak was capable of forming intent and, to some degree, understanding the consequences when he shot and killed Adla.

“To me, there’s nothing that has to be factored into the intent question with respect to the [homicide],” Klassen told Tulloch.

“With respect to the aggravated assault, there may appear to be psychiatric issues at play.”

The psychiatric issues at play with respect to Kingwatsiak’s aggravated assault charge stem from the accused’s sniffing of gasoline fumes in the early morning of Sept. 20, Klassen said.

Before that, on Sept. 17, Kingwatsiak saw Geena Lampron and Adla at a dance, the psychiatrist testified.

The following day, Kingwatsiak threatened Adla with a gun, and on the day after that, he tried to reconnect with Lampron, Klassen said.

But the girl rejected Kingwatsiak, the psychiatrist added, which caused the accused a lot of stress and sleeplessness.

Kingwatsiak got out of bed early on the morning of Sept. 20 and sniffed gasoline before arriving at his uncle’s home around 5 a.m., Klassen said.

Based on the psychiatrist’s interviews with Kingwatsiak, Klassen said the accused’s memory of slashing his uncle’s face were “fuzzy.”

“I’m still not sure I have a really good grasp on the motive and line of reasoning on the assault of [Manu Kingwatsiak],” Klassen testified.

The accused sniffed more gasoline fumes after leaving his uncle’s home and before arriving at the home of his step-brother Adla around 6 a.m., Klassen said.

But in both his own version of the shooting, and in telling two friends about the shooting later that day, the psychiatrist said the accused did not appear to suffer any memory lapses.

“When I asked [the accused], ‘why do you think this happened?’, he didn’t say, ‘I don’t remember, I was out of my mind on inhalants,’” Klassen said.

Instead, Klassen said Kingwatsiak talked about his problems with girls, with Lampron, and other distressing factors.

Those other factors include a troubled childhood with alcoholic parents, losing one sibling to suicide, another sibling to a firearm accident and to being sexually abused as a child.

The effect of experiencing traumatizing factors as a youth is accumulative, the psychiatrist said, resulting in low self-esteem and difficulty in managing emotions.

But defence lawyer James Morton, during his cross-examination of Klassen, pointed out that Kingwatsiak has no criminal record and no recorded history of venting those emotions in a violent manner.

Morton asked Klassen if the emotions described in his psychiatric assessment of Kingwatsiak — shame, sadness and hopelessness — could result in a person being unable to foresee the consequences of their actions.

“They do make it less likely that the person will appreciate the range of options going into the future,” Klassen replied.

Morton also asked Klassen if it was possible, given how much gasoline Kingwatsiak admitted to sniffing, that the accused’s memory of the shooting was fragmented.

“Some fragmentation of that time period would not be unexpected,” Klassen replied.

Day two of the trial is scheduled for June 23 when two civilian witnesses from Cape Dorset are expected to testify. The whole trial is expected to last until June 26.