Suarez Noa murder trial day 5

Warning: images and details in this story may be disturbing.

Haiden Suarez Noa testified in his own defence today. It was the second time the 41-year-old has spoken to a jury about stabbing his girlfriend Tania Cowell to death in 2013 but the jury has been told not to speculate about what happened at the first trial. .

Suarez Noa spoke glowingly and in great detail about growing up in Cuba as the only son to doting parents and grandparents. He says his first marriage ended because his wife cheated on him and his first son is almost 18. But he got flustered asking about his second child, the girl born to a woman he left pregnant in Cuba when he emigrated to Canada in 2009.

Suarez Noa took Tania Cowell, his first Canadian girlfriend, back home to Cuba in January 2012. A couple of weeks after that trip, Cowell told Suarez Noa she was pregnant.

“I was paralyzed,” he told the jury. Cowell was supposed to be taking birth control pills and after the revelation the couple’s relationship became combative.

On March 9th, 2013, Suarez Noa says Cowell told him she was leaving and he’d never see his months-old son again.

“Something in here short circuited,” Suarez Noa told the jury, pointing to his head. “I don’t know what happened but I stabbed her.”

In cross examination the prosecutor noted that Suarez Noa remembered minute details of that night, like the fact he was going to make a sandwich and that’s why he pulled out a knife but he didn’t know how many times he stabbed her because he didn’t count as he was attacking, right? the crown asked.

“I’m not that kind of a psycho,” Suarez Noa bristled. “I lost my temper, obviously.”

Suarez Noa took a picture of Cowell’s body before leaving the apartment with their son. He told the jury it was so he could prove the crime to police when he surrendered.

The cross examination continues tomorrow.