Note: This story contains details some readers may find disturbing
WATCH: A nurse says the Oak Bay father on trial for killing his two daughters mouthed the words “kill me” and never asked about his daughters. Tess van Straaten reports.
The Andrew Berry murder trial is entering its second month.
On Monday, the nurse who first treated Berry when he was in the intensive care unit (ICU) took the stand.
Berry was taken to the ICU after emergency surgery on Christmas night 2017.
Critical care nurse Elizabeth McMullen says Berry was immediately put in restraints.
She says Berry was breathing on his own but a tracheotomy tube meant he couldn’t talk.
He has we given propofol — an anesthetic — and strong narcotic painkillers.
McMullen says she was aware before Berry arrived in the ICU around 11:15 p.m. that his two daughters, six-year-old Chloe and four-year-old Aubrey, had been killed earlier that day.
Berry’s charged with two counts of second-degree murder in their deaths.
McMullen, who looked after Berry during two, 12-hour shifts, says he never asked about his daughters.
But that first night in hospital, after his parents and sister arrived, she says Berry mouthed the words “kill me” to his sister, who’s a police officer.
McMullen and Berry’s sister were the only ones in the room at the time and she says his sister agreed he was trying to say “kill me”.
Court was told Berry was being detained under the mental health act and hadn’t been arrested.
Under cross-examination, court also learned there were “concerns about a distraught male” who was trying to get into the ICU to see Berry.
McMullen says she didn’t know who it was.
The trial continues Tuesday and is expected to last at least two more months.
Here’s a link to previous coverage of the murder trial and the Andrew Berry case.
Tess van Straaten
