TORONTO -- The man accused of a terrifying, deadly attack in a crowded downtown mall is a liar who has no respect for the law or the courts, his first-degree murder trial heard Wednesday.
In cross-examination, prosecutor John Cisorio pointedly noted how Christopher Husbands had regularly breached bail conditions he had sworn under oath to observe.
"At the time, I was speaking the truth -- I couldn't foresee the future," Husbands testified on his third day on the witness stand.
"I didn't say I was going out to break my bail but it's something I ended up doing."
Husbands, 25, has pleaded not guilty to the planned killing of two men at the landmark Eaton Centre on June 2, 2012, in a shooting that also left five people injured.
The Crown alleges he gunned down Nixon Nirmalendran, 22, and a friend in deliberate retaliation for an almost fatal stabbing earlier that year.
"On June 2, you took the law into your own hands, didn't you?" Cisorio said.
"That's how you might interpret it but I felt my life was in danger. I did not take the law into my own hands to go kill anyone.
Cisorio noted Husbands was walking around with a full loaded gun when he went to the Eaton Centre. Husbands said the firearm made him feel safer because he knew Nirmalendran and the other assailants carried guns.
"If you had the gun, you weren't going to throw it at them, were you?" Cisorio said.
"Obviously not."
"The gun is there to be used."
"It's there to protect myself."
Husbands maintains the stabbing in February 2012 left him paranoid and fearful and the shooting was the result of a chance encounter with men he believed were out to kill him.
The Crown lawyer cast doubt on Husbands' claim to being afraid. Cisorio also noted Husbands lied to police after he turned himself in following the mall shooting in an effort to obscure a link between the February attack and the June shooting.
The witness responded he was only trying to make it clear he was not interested in talking to the officers, who quickly formed an opinion that the mall shooting was related to the earlier stabbing.
"I wasn't going to change their mind," said Husbands, neatly dressed in jacket and tie.
He again said he had no idea what motivated the February assault but said he was sure it was not because he had slept with the mother of one of the attackers.
At the time of the mall shooting, Husbands was on bail for convictions related to obstruction and sexually assaulting the mother of his now six-year-old daughter.
The eight conditions included house arrest and precluded his using or selling drugs, carrying a firearm or being near the woman.
Husbands admitted to breaching all of them.
"Nothing stops Mr. Husbands, right?" Cisorio said.
"I don't know how to answer that question."
