David Moss, who is seeking a verdict that he is not criminally responsible for the second-degree murder of Bella Rose Desrosiers, said on Friday that the demon’s voice telling him to hurt the girl had been silent since he started taking drugs. He also no longer believes in alien conspiracies, 5G technology, poison jet rains, ghost awakenings and COVID-19, as he believed moments before Bella was found in a pool of her blood, Moss said at his own trial. by the judge before the Court of Alberta. of the queen’s bench. “I thought I was going to be kidnapped (by aliens) or that I was going to be kidnapped,” said Moss, 36. “When you had visions of being abducted by an alien – do you believe that today?” asked defense attorney Rod Gregory Moss. “To be honest, no,” he replied. Moss testified that he grew up in a sexually, physically and verbally abusive household in Holden, Alta. He said his parents started giving him sips of alcohol when he was about nine and taught him spirituality. He also smoked marijuana regularly as he grew older, he said. He was expelled from school after 10th grade, he told the court, and moved to Edmonton when he was 17 years old. After someone threw a stone at his head and broke his skull, he could not speak properly and began to have memory problems, he said. A year after the injury he met his wife and they had four children together, he testified. He said he suffered from anxiety and was prescribed medication in 2019 for voices he heard, but did not take much. In March 2020, after the COVID-19 pandemic forced him to close his tattoo parlor, his belief in conspiracies and spiritual awakening intensified, Moss said. “It was all an illusion, I thought,” he told the court. “I just thought I was awake and everyone was asleep – He was not on a spiritual journey.” It was then that Moss began posting on social media that the COVID-19 vaccines had microchips in them.

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Prior to Moss’s testimony, his defense attorney played a video in court with Moss banging his head on the bed in his cell and pulling out his front teeth while in custody. The police entered the bloody room and took him away. A clip was also played with Moss attacking a health worker. He strangled her as a guard punched him repeatedly before letting him go. He testified that he also tried to hang himself while being held in the Edmonton detention center. The trial has already heard from Moss’s estranged wife and sister about how his mental health took an extreme and bizarre turn a few days before they cut Bella’s neck with scissors. Moss was a new friend of the girl’s mother, Melissa Desrosiers, and stayed at her house so she could take him to the hospital for help with the suicidal thoughts she had expressed that day. The court was informed that Desrosiers had taken Bella and her younger sister from their aunt’s house and arrived with Moss at her house. While taking a shower, Desrosiers took her daughters to their bedroom for the night. Their aunt was going to babysit while Desrosiers took Moss to the hospital. The court was informed that Desrosiers was about to kiss Bella for good night when Moss, wearing only shorts, appeared at the door. He was holding a pair of scissors that he had taken out of a kitchen drawer. A fact-finding statement says Moss pushed Desrosiers aside and started cutting Bella in the neck with the 20cm blade. Desrosiers fought him as she told her other daughter to run to the bathroom and lock herself in. Moss dragged Bella to the main floor of the house and continued to cut her throat. The girl was found by the police almost beheaded, the statement says. Moss had told his wife, Tracy Couture-Strarosta, earlier that day that he wanted to hurt her, commit suicide and sexually assaulted a young cousin. Couture-Strarosta testified that they called the Edmonton police and asked them to take him somewhere. A crisis team evaluated him and scheduled another meeting at 4:30 p.m. that day, but never went. This Canadian Press report was first published on June 10, 2022.

This story was created with the financial support of Meta and the Canadian Press News Fellowship