‘I’m just freaking out. I just know it’s bad’

Man on trial for second-degree murder testifies he shot girlfriend, fled and drank at Toronto bar

After riddling his girlfriend with bullets, Mark Champagne “panicked,” ran away, took a taxi to Toronto, and “drowned” himself in alcohol at a bar, he told a jury at his second-degree murder trial.

The 45-year old told court Thursday that he shot Natasha Thompson outside her Hamilton home on Nov. 6, 2017, because he mistakenly thought he heard the sound of a trigger cocking behind him, and believed someone was about to fire at him.

Champagne testified he quickly turned and opened fire at “that person to prevent them from shooting me in the back of the head.”

And then, he continued, he walked over to the victim.

“I step closely to identify that person, and it’s Natasha,” he said on the witness stand. “I’m trying to tell myself that no, it’s not her.”

“And then?” asked a lawyer in court who is assisting him in his defence.

“I’m just freaking out,” said Champagne. “I don’t really know what to do at that point. I just know it’s bad, and not a situation where she’s hurt and you can bring her to the hospital. It’s a situation beyond repair.”

At that point, he testified, he ran away, and then “a girl in the area” called him a Blue Line cab, and he headed to a bar in Toronto.

He said he drank there until closing time.

Champagne told the jury that he had been drinking beer earlier in the day, “as I usually do,” and smoking “the occasional joint,” before falling asleep on Thompson’s couch, in the moments before she was shot to death.

In court he painted a picture for jurors of the 37-year old mother of two as his partner in crime, who he said was dealing drugs and guns with him for several months.

Champagne testified that, on the day Thompson was killed, she had ignored a threat from a drug dealer to pay what they owed, or else “there’s going to be smoke,” because the dealer would come and “shoot up the house.”

He then described a scene where the drug dealer showed at Thompson’s townhouse, entered the unit, took a shot at Champagne and fled, before Champagne mistakenly shot Thompson.

Jurors have previously heard that on the day Thompson was killed, she had told Champagne she was leaving him and getting an abortion.

During a heated cross-examination, assistant Crown attorney Andrew Scott said to Champagne: “I’m going to suggest to you that she wasn’t dealing any drugs for you.”

“You can suggest what you want, you’re wrong buddy,” said Champagne, who cursed several times in court and called the prosecutor “dumb.”

Court has heard testimony from a ballistics expert that Champagne used a semi-automatic weapon in the homicide, which means he would have had to pull the trigger repeatedly to fire 10 bullets at Thompson.

But in his testimony, Champagne said it had been an automatic weapon, and he pulled the trigger once and held it down until all the bullets were fired.

“I take it you disagree with the CFS (Centre of Forensic Sciences) evidence that it was a semi-automatic?” Scott asked.

Champagne insisted it was an automatic, but that it had been “altered” to resemble a semiautomatic.

Jurors heard details of Champagne’s criminal record, which included convictions in 2000 for assault with a weapon, attempted murder and aggravated assault, offences for which he was sentenced to 13 years in prison.

While in prison, he was convicted for assaulting a peace officer.

His testimony continues Friday.