'He never told me that he killed Sheree': Greg Fertuck's former girlfriend says during cross-examination
CBC
A man accused of killing his estranged wife was back in court in Saskatoon on Friday, this time acting in his own defence.
Greg Fertuck is on trial for first-degree murder in the 2015 death of Sheree Fertuck. He has chosen to represent himself after his lawyers withdrew from the case.
On Friday, he cross-examined his former girlfriend and the Crown's gun expert, asking questions about their earlier testimony.
According to testimony from his former girlfriend Doris Larocque, Greg Fertuck drunkenly admitted to killing Sheree on Dec. 7, 2015 — just hours after the crime allegedly happened.
The Crown's case is that Fertuck shot Sheree Fertruck and hid her body, which has never been found.
On Friday, Larocque backtracked on some of her incriminating comments as Fertuck cross examined her.
"He [Fertuck] never told me that he killed Sheree. I'm sure he didn't. I don't remember that but I don't think he did," Larocque, 78, told the court Friday.
Earlier during the trial, Fertuck's former lawyer Morris Bodnar had noted that Larocque had memory loss and suggested she could be suffering from early onset dementia. She had agreed, saying she's not diagnosed but has thought about it — it's an illness that plagued her mother, too.
In closing arguments, the Crown also realized that there were very few questions Larocque did not respond to saying "I don't remember or recall".
Larocque and Fertuck were a long-term couple and Fertuck lived with her until his arrest in 2019. But when cross examined by Fertuck on the length of their living situation, she said it was not very long and perhaps was a year.
"My memory isn't good but I'm sure," she told the court.
When she testified in 2021, she told the court that Greg had told her not to tell anybody about him shooting his wife— and that if she did tell anybody, she'd be next.
She testified via video link from a separate room at the courthouse. There was a support worker in the room with her.
"Hello Doris, it has been a long time, I'm still a victim here," said Fertuck, beginning his cross-examination.
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