A man who admits to raping and beating a woman near a Calgary light-rail transit station has testified he was so drunk and stoned he thought the victim was his dead mother.
Christopher Watcheston testified yesterday in his own defence at his trial for first-degree murder in the death of Arcelie Laoagan.
The 24-year-old man has admitted to stalking, sexually assaulting and fatally beating the mother of five in January 2008, but has pleaded not guilty.
Watcheston told court he had consumed up to two-dozen beers and had smoked a hallucinogenic plant called salvia at the time of the attack.
He said Laoagan screamed, “Don’t rape me, don’t rape me” before he assaulted the 41-year-old woman and kicked her three or four times in the hope she wouldn’t remember what happened to her.
Pathologist Dr. Graeme Dowling has previously testified Laoagan suffered severe enough wounds to her head that it prevented her brain from functioning.
Earlier this week, court saw video surveillance evidence from the LRT station, which is said to have shown the accused stalking Laoagan prior to her murder.
