The crown closes the evidence in the trial of a man accused of killing his wife in Laval

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Ernesto Fera once said that he would never forgive the person who killed his wife, Nadia Panarello.

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He made the statement in 2004 while providing police with a polygraph test, shortly after Panarello was found dead inside his home in Laval.

That statement was presented as evidence Monday morning in court where, 17 years later, Fera, now 55, is on trial for the first-degree murder of his wife.

Although Panarello was killed in Laval, the trial takes place before a judge only at the St-Jérôme court. It began on November 8, and the prosecution declared its evidence closed Monday morning after a video recording of the polygraph test was shown to Superior Court Judge James Brunton.

Fera’s attorney, Joseph La Leggia, announced that he will present a defense starting Thursday.

Fera underwent a polygraph test in 2004, several years before being arrested in July 2019 as a suspect in the homicide.

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“(Could you) forgive that person in your heart? Could you forgive them? ”The interrogator asked Fera towards the end of the test.

“No,” Fera replied calmly. “They took someone from me. He took someone from me, can you forgive him? There is no reason.”

“Do you think that even if you say it is a sick person, do you think that a person who kills … the person who killed your wife, do you think that person will feel remorse for doing that at some point?”

“If the person was capable of doing it, I don’t think they think about that,” Fera replied.

“Don’t you think about that?”

“Taking someone’s life, I think (if) you don’t have that feeling of knowing what it is, you can’t feel remorse for that.”

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During the polygraph test and in previous statements to Laval police, Fera claimed that Panarello was alive when he went to work on February 12, 2004. When he failed to show up for work that morning, someone at his workplace called Fera. He called Panarello’s mother, who decided to see how her daughter was doing.

The mother arrived at the couple’s home in the Vimont de Laval district and found their 38-year-old daughter dead in the bathroom attached to the master bedroom. The victim had been stabbed to death.

According to a decision Brunton issued in July, before the trial began earlier this month: “The decision to indict (Fera) was based in part on his having the exclusive opportunity to commit the crime. This, in turn, was based on the presumed fact that all entry points to the residence were closed at the time of the (Panarello’s) mother’s arrival. There were also no unexplained footprints around the house that could support the arrival of an intruder. There had been a light layer of snow overnight. “

Fera is alleged to have killed his wife for financial reasons. During the trial, Brunton heard evidence indicating that the couple were experiencing money problems before Panarello was killed and that Fera received more than $ 300,000 in insurance after his death.

This article will be updated.

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