Suspect claimed he killed someone, witness says

FREDERICTON, New Brunswick – Before crossing into the United States, a double-murder suspect from New Brunswick told another traveler he had just killed somebody, a court heard Thursday.

Gregory Allan Despres, 25, faces two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Fred Fulton, 74, and Verna Decarie, 70. The elderly couple, who lived next door to Despres in Minto, were found dead in their home April 26, 2005.

Despres had crossed over into the United States at the border crossing between St. Stephen and Calais, Maine. Before he was admitted entry into the United States, though, he was detained for a time.

Edward Young told the court Thursday he had been traveling with friends to the United States for a vacation but he was detained because of a past drug conviction. He saw Despres come into the U.S. border-protection building with a duffel bag, he testified, and he saw the variety of weapons he had with him.

Among the items Despres had when he arrived at the border were a homemade sword, brass knuckles, a hatchet and a chain saw. Young said after he saw the weapons, he figured Despres also was barred from the United States.

Despres later was granted entry because he holds dual U.S.-Canadian citizenship.

Young said Despres ended up sitting beside him in the border-protection building.

After joking with Despres that he was stuck just like him, Young said, Despres made an unusual statement in a calm voice.

“He told me he was an assassin and he just finished a job and was headed home,” the witness said. “At the time, I didn’t take it too seriously.”

Young said he also saw border guards examining and touching the items Despres had brought with him. He even saw the officers trying on the brass knuckles.

U.S. customs and border protection officers from the Calais border crossing are scheduled to testify today.

Much of Thursday’s testimony focused on mapping Despres’ journey from Minto to the U.S.-Canada border in Calais in the wake of the killings.

Motorists who were on Route 3 between Fredericton and St. Stephen late April 24, 2005, and early April 25 testified about seeing a short-statured figure walking along the highway in the pouring rain. Two of them, Ernest Day and Gregory Harnish, picked up the hitchhiking Despres.

“I couldn’t understand a word he said,” Day testified. “He was more or less just rambling on to himself.”

While Day drove him only a few miles, Harnish testified he had Despres with him in his car for 20 or 30 minutes, driving him all the way into St. Stephen.

Harnish said they talked about working in the woods, as he assumed that’s what Despres did since he had a chain saw with him.

When approaching St. Stephen, Despres asked to be dropped off near a pay phone, preferably one that was somewhat secluded.

“He said, ‘I don’t want to go anywheres where there’s people,”‘ Harnish said. “I believe he said, ‘I don’t want to be where people are.”‘