Defense attorneys for Daniel Jimenez-Acosta, Setu Purohit and Martin Montes (l-r) leave court in London Thursday Apr 4, 2013.
London man killed wife, made up story about robbers: Crown
Credits: MIKE HENSEN/QMI AGENCY
KELLY PEDRO | QMI AGENCY
LONDON, Ont. - Daniel Jimenez-Acosta, 45, testified he thought it was a "dream, a nightmare" when he saw his wife bloody and lying face down in the basement laundry room of their townhouse.
After trying to lift his wife's body, she fell hard and Jimenez-Acosta said he went to the laundry tub and dunked his head under the tap.
"I wanted to wake up," he told his defence lawyer Martin Montes.
Jimenez-Acosta is on trial for second-degree murder after his wife's body was found badly beaten. Patricia Pacheco-Hernandez, 41, was a mother of three children.
When he took glass in his hand and sliced himself outside in front of a neighbour he was still trying to wake up, he told the court.
Assistant Crown attorney Fraser Ball challenged Jimenez-Acosta's dream-like state, saying it was instead a ploy to contaminate the crime scene to make it tough for police to investigate.
"No, I don't know how to do that," Jimenez-Acosta said.
Ball questioned why Jimenez-Acosta would remove a piece of wood from the family's back patio door.
Twice before, thieves had either broken into the family home or tried to while the couple's two sons were there. Their son wedged a piece of wood at the back patio door to reinforce it.
On the day his wife died, Jimenez-Acosta said he went to the store, looking for something the same size and shape as the wood because his wife wanted it to look nicer.
"Is it your bad fortune that in approximately that hour or so (you were gone) someone entered your home and brutally killed your wife?" Ball asked.
Ball said Jimenez-Acosta killed his wife after with a vase after she told him their marriage was over.
"That never happened," Jimenez-Acosta said.
Ball said Jimenez-Acosta removed the wood at the patio door and created a story about robbers,
"You used the dream-state story to cover up other details you couldn't contaminate," Ball said.
"It wasn't a dream, it was a nightmare," Jimenez-Acosta said.
Pacheco-Hernandez told him she wasn't going to pretend anymore, Ball said.
"No, she never said anything about getting out of the relationship," he said, adding the couple remained close to the end and even had sex the night before.
She smiled to him that morning, let him caress her. When he tickled her, she laughed. Someone who wanted out of a relationship wouldn't do that, he said.
