The trial for a Langley man who is charged with killing his wife started on Monday as planned. He decided to use a French interpreter. The prosecutor shared some alarming facts that both the Crown and the defense agreed on.
Obnes Regis is accused of causing the death of his wife, Naomi Onotera, in August 2021. He is also charged with mistreating her body. He sat in a special seat for a person accused of a crime while someone translated the court proceedings for him. Madam Justice Martha Devlin will make a decision on the case by herself, without a jury.
Crown prosecutor Crichton Pike said the first thing that Regis was hired by the BC Courts as an interpreter, but it’s not clear if he actually worked on a trial.
Pike made a list of what happened when Onotera went missing, and Regis acted strangely as her family and friends got worried and called the police. The police found 40 pieces of evidence, like bone pieces and hair, on a saw in the front yard of the couple’s house. They also saw video of Regis with their young daughter and a black backpack, taking buses and a taxi from Surrey to Maple Ridge to Fort Langley.
Regis is said to have taken police officers to where he left Onotera’s bones along the Fraser River in Fort Langley. He also said that some small pieces fell into the water and some fell in the bushes. The Crown says he took his daughter with him and used buses and a taxi to go from Maple Ridge to Langley, then to Fort Langley.
Pike asked the first witness for the prosecution to come forward. The witness was a teacher from BCIT named Steen Hartsen. Devlin said he is an expert in DNA and forensic investigations.
The trial will start again on Tuesday and is likely to continue for the whole month. According to the law, Regis is considered innocent unless a court decides he is guilty.
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Trial for British Columbian man charged with murdering and mutilating wife starts
