Warning: This story contains disturbing details of a murder.
A Langford man accused of killing his mother three years ago described breaking her bones, strangling her and stabbing her repeatedly in a recorded statement he gave to police, a 小蓝视频 Supreme Court trial heard Tuesday.
Ryan Robert Elder, 30, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of his mother, Raymonde Elder, whose body was found on New Year’s Eve 2021 by police conducting a wellness check.
If he’s found guilty, his lawyers intend to argue Ryan Elder is not criminally responsible for his mother’s death by reason of mental disorder.
Elder described in detail “how he repeatedly assaulted Ms. Elder by punching her, how he broke her bones, such that he could literally hear those bones breaking, how he strangled her, intending to do so until she died, and then, when that failed, he stabbed her over and over with a clear intent, the Crown says, to end her life,” said Crown prosecutor Patrick Weir in closing submissions.
Ryan Elder was found in his mother’s home when police arrived to perform a wellness check and found Raymonde Elder’s body in her living room, Weir said.
“He himself gave a lengthy and detailed evidence of long-standing animus towards her,” and he told police when they arrived that he had been in an altercation with his mother, claiming he acted in self-defence, Weir said.
It is clear that once Ryan Elder began punching his mother, the assault would continue until she died, he said. No one could inflict the injuries found on Raymonde Elder — multiple stab wounds, blunt-force trauma to her head and a compressed neck due to strangulation — without intending to kill the person, Weir said.
“Common sense tells us this. But we don’t even have to rely on common sense, because Mr. Elder himself told us that he intended on killing Ms. Elder,” he said.
In an interview with police, Ryan Elder said his mother fell over and “literally exposed her heart to me on purpose,” Weir said, quoting from the interview.
“And I was like, I basically felt like it was a mercy killing where I like, I literally just went stab, stab, stab.”
Ryan Elder described where on his mother’s body he made each stab wound and said he tried to “close off her throat,” at one point saying his mother was trying to kill him and herself, Weir said.
“ ‘I was trying to cry because I was in so much just mental anguish like that. I don’t even know what happened.’ And he said: ‘I’ll be honest. I stabbed her six times. Broke the knife handle off.’ ”
He said he attacked his mother after she slapped him in the face, calling it “an aggressive self-defence.”
There is “no air of reality” to that claim, Weir said.
“He provided ample reason why he was fed up with his mother and fed up with her interventions in his life, including she controlled his money, was constantly putting him down, telling him to get a job, telling him to do chores around the house,” Weir said.
At the time of her death, Raymonde Elder’s siblings said her son struggled with his mental health. She let him stay with her and tried to get him support, they said.
Ryan Elder’s defence lawyers called no evidence. He rose in the prisoner’s box to say he chose not to testify in his defence.
Justice Jennifer Power is expected to give her verdict Wednesday.
