By Canadian Press

Montreal man on trial for murder of wife with Alzheimer’s testifies about her death

Feb 4, 2019 | 12:58 PM

MONTREAL — A Quebec man on trial for the death of his ailing wife has told jurors he suffocated her with a pillow to end her suffering.

Michel Cadotte says he arrived to visit his wife on Feb. 20, 2017 — a Monday — after friction with his family led him to spend the weekend drinking.

He says he had barely slept and was not feeling himself when he got to the long-term care facility where Jocelyne Lizotte was living.

Cadotte says it saddened him to see Lizotte with her neck bent, sitting in a geriatric chair without a specialized head rest. He says he struggled to feed her lunch that day and gave her several pieces of chocolate, crying as he did it.

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As she fell asleep, Cadotte put Lizotte in her bed. He says he struggled to place a pillow under his wife’s head. He says he can’t explain what happened, but after a couple of attempts, he placed the pillow over her face and smothered her.

“She was suffering too much,” Cadotte testified. “I didn’t want her to suffer anymore. I was suffering for her.”

He is charged in the death of Lizotte, 60, who was in the late stages of Alzheimer’s disease that had left her unable to care for herself and detached from reality.

Cadotte’s defence lawyers are drawing attention to his state of mind at the time of her death, which they say doesn’t support the second-degree murder charge brought against their client.

One year before her killing, Cadotte had sought a medically assisted death for Lizotte but was told she didn’t qualify. The trial has heard he admitted to the head nurse and several relatives that he had taken Lizotte’s life.

The Canadian Press