Accused ‘dazed’ after explosion

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/12/2021 (1462 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man accused of killing his wife was reportedly “dazed” and quiet in the aftermath of a natural gas explosion that destroyed their house.

Robert Hughes is accused of killing his wife, Betty Hughes, with a knife before their house on Queens Avenue East exploded on Oct. 22, 2019. He pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder on the first day of his trial in the Brandon Court of Queen’s Bench.

The charges have not been proven in court and he is presumed innocent until proven guilty. Hughes was 63 when he was charged.

Brandon firefighter/paramedic Sean Klemick testified he was dispatched to the scene of the explosion just before 8 p.m. and could hear a very loud hissing sound, caused by leaking natural gas.

After Manitoba Hydro turned off the gas, Klemick said firefighters heard something moving in the house debris. He said Hughes was standing where the doorway would have been and firefighters called out to him.

“He didn’t answer when we called to him,” Klemick said.

Firefighters moved through the debris and took Hughes by the arm to a safer spot, he said under questioning from Crown attorney Christian Vanderhooft.

“We noticed some injuries on his forearms, asked him if he had done those to himself and he said ‘Yes,’ and we asked if there was anyone else in the house. Initially, he said ‘It didn’t matter,’” he testified.

Hughes then allegedly said his wife, Betty, was in the house, and she was “already dead,” Klemick told the court.

At the time, Hughes reportedly had yellow rope wound tightly around his neck and a yellow utility knife in his hand, he said.

Hughes wore a grey suit and sat quietly in the accused’s box during testimony on Tuesday.

Brandon Fire and Emergency Services acting Lt. Robbie Brown testified firefighters were “surprised” to see someone still in the house in the aftermath. The accused had cuts on his forearms when he came out of the destroyed house, but he was not bleeding profusely.

“Everything was odd at that point … I asked him ‘Were you trying to hurt yourself?’ — something like that — and he said ‘Yes,’” Brown said to Vanderhooft.

Hughes later allegedly told firefighters Betty was in the kitchen. Brown said the rescue team couldn’t go very far into the building due to safety concerns, but they could see a leg under some insulation. They called out to her, but there was no reply.

Firefighter Travis Tannis, who was also called to the scene and helped Hughes out the house, said the accused was “dazed” and possibly had trouble understanding questions after the explosion.

Former Manitoba Office of the Fire Commissioner investigator Kevin Oman also took to the witness stand and testified about his investigation into the source of the explosion that ripped apart the house.

He said there was a debris field around the property. The rear door frame was resting at the fence north of the house, and the living room window was lying on the front lawn. Most of the walls had been “pushed” by the explosion and the east wall was resting against a pickup truck.

The investigation led into the basement utility room, which contained the hot water tank, Oman told the court. The gas line leading to the boiler was severed, which would have let natural gas fill the room.

Oman said he looked at all the possible ignition sources in the room, including the electrical switches or any matches, but concluded the explosion happened when the natural gas ignited on the water heater’s pilot light.

Natural gas is lighter than air, so it would have taken several minutes for the gas to fill the room to the point of reaching the pilot light, he said in response to Vanderhooft’s questions.

Oman said he had never seen an explosion that size in a house before.

“[It would have been] pretty strong to be able to push walls and move items from the house out into the street … and break floor joists,” he said.

Under cross-examination from defence lawyer Saul Simmonds, Oman said the Oct. 22, 2019 explosion was the first one he investigated, and he did not have a large amount of experience with them prior.

Simmonds also raised issues with the investigation, saying it did not follow the scientific method or test hypotheses about how the explosion happened.

“Not only are you supposed to be following the scientific method … you expect all the other professionals to follow the scientific method,” Simmonds said.

“And that means collecting data, preserving things, taking photographs, taking swabs as part of the task.”

On the first day of the trial on Monday, Brandon Police Service officer Const. Travis Foster said Betty was found inside the destroyed house with a multitude of cuts and lying in a pool of blood.

The trial is scheduled to last approximately three weeks and will continue with the Crown’s case today.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @DrewMay_