Accused takes stand and says victim in Hamilton murder trial stabbed herself

On a cloudy Monday afternoon in 1961, 10-year-old Wayne Bell placed his dad's head on his lap and cradled it as he watched him struggle for air.

A sudden blood clot had left the middle-aged mechanic incapacitated.

Bell, the oldest of six siblings, didn't know what to do or who to call. He was just a kid, and mom wasn't home. It was her first day of a new job.

Bell asked dad what was wrong. Dad kept gagging.

I said, I'm going to the neighbours,'" a teary-eyed Bell testified Friday. And he said, Don't leave me. I don't want to die alone.'"

So, Bell waited, in silence, and looked into his father's face as he took his last breath. The sight of that face - ailing and flushed, desperate - is one he often recalls at age 70.

It's the same face Bell said he saw on July 28, 2016, some five decades later, when Marilyn Mitton opened the front door to her apartment with a hunter's knife wedged into her torso.

Bell is on trial for first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Mitton, 66, and accused of setting her 200 Jackson St. W. apartment ablaze to cover up evidence. He has pleaded not guilty to both counts.

Bell took the stand Friday for the first time in his now five-week trial.

He testified that Mitton killed herself and, a year before her death, asked him to put her in a bathtub with water if she committed suicide so cockroaches wouldn't get to her flesh.

Mitton was found face down in a bleach- and water-filled bathtub on July 31.

Bell testified she died three days earlier.

At about 7:05 p.m. on July 28, Bell told the jury Mitton knocked on his fourteenth-floor apartment. She wanted to talk.

A half-hour later, after a quick shower and shave, Bell went down to Mitton's seventh-floor unit. The television was on. Bell knocked on the door. Mitton said come in.

In the front hallway, next to a closet, Bell said he saw Mitton standing with two hands in a fist stacked on top of each other, as if she were holding a baseball bat.

I came in, locked the door and when I turned around I saw the knife," Bell testified. I couldn't see the handle, but I saw the blade."

Mitton then plunged the six- to seven-inch knife diagonally into her body. Bell said he ran toward Mitton in a haste and pushed her up against the closet.

I yelled at her, What the hell are you doing? Why are you doing this to me?' I was freaking out. She didn't say anything. She was just crying," Bell said. She just gurgled and coughed. I looked over and saw blood on the wall and felt her slip."

Bell said he then took the knife out and placed Mitton on the floor. He dragged her to the to the living room, where the light was brighter than the foyer area, and looked for the phone in her bedroom to call police.

The phone wasn't there," Bell said.

As Bell looked for the phone, Mitton allegedly slipped back into consciousness, picked up the knife and stabbed herself in the belly.

I took out the knife and flung it backwards towards the coffee table, just in front of the couch," Bell said. I told her I was going to get (help). She said, Will you please not leave me?'"

Bell testified to the jury that his mind went back to his father, who, 55 years earlier, had asked Bell not to leave for help as he died in his arms.

I saw my father's face," he said. I saw her life bleed, just like my father."

Mitton then allegedly asked Bell to bring her to her bed, where the pair laid together and hugged before Mitton died.

She was rubbing my face, telling me how much she loved me," Bell testified. And then her hand just dropped ... She was gone."

Bell said he saw Mitton with a knife in her body on three separate occasions that night.

Court previously heard evidence from a pathologist who testified Mitton sustained seven stab wounds.

Bell said he stayed by the bloody Mitton for about 10 to 15 minutes before he left for the stairwell.

I made it to the first landing and said, Oh no, I've got to go back,'" he said. I had to do what she asked me to do."

Bell was referring to an alleged conversation he had in June 2015 with Mitton, who, Bell testified, was suicidal at the time.

She asked me if I would help kill herself," Bell testified. She told me she was going to take an overdose of pills and wanted me to put her in the bathtub and fill it up with water because she didn't want bugs crawling over her."

After Bell put Mitton in the tub, court heard, he grabbed a box which contained letters and bank cheques belonging to Mitton and returned to his apartment. He also took her prescription medication and the six beers left in her fridge.

Under questioning from defence counsel Tania Bariteau, Bell was asked why he didn't call for help as Mitton withered in pain.

So many things were going through my head," he responded before the jury. It's a night I don't want to experience again.

I sat there, popped a couple pills, had a few beers, trying to think."

The trial resumes with cross-examination of Bell by the Crown on Monday.

Sebastian Bron is a Hamilton-based reporter at The Spectator. Reach him via email: sbron@thespec.com