MANDEL: Husband admits strangling his wife, but claims he didn’t mean to

For almost two weeks, a jury has heard prosecutors build a case against Henry Morales, alleging he brutally beat and strangled his wife to death and then fled the country for 14 years.

Now it was finally the chance for the accused killer to tell his side of the story. His version, though, was likely not what they expected.

His lawyer Karen Symes began with a blunt question.

“Did you kill Malena Morales,” she asked.

“Yes, I did,” her husband replied.

“Did you want to kill her?” continued Symes.

“No, I didn’t.”

In his opening statement, defence lawyer Dean Embry told the jury that he and  Symes will be asking them to return a verdict of manslaughter and not murder.

His long black hair, pulled back in a ponytail, Morales explained that he came to Toronto with his family from El Salvador when he was 10. He met Malena in high school and wed at City Hall after graduation, despite their parents’ reservations. He was 17; she was 18. “We were in love.”

In 1997, they lived in Ecuador with Malena’s brother but returned to Canada after she became pregnant with the first of their two sons. She went back to her home country to celebrate her niece’s 15th birthday in 2005 and confessed on her return that she’d kissed an old boyfriend.

He was hurt and angry, but said they put it behind them.

At the beginning of 2006, after her salon business failed, Morales said Malena wanted them to start over in Ecuador. She went ahead with their sons while he sold their house and settled their debts.

Shortly after he arrived, Morales admitted assaulting her over money she’d lost in a bad investment. “I grabbed her by the shoulders and I was shaking her.”

He denied choking her.

His brother kicked him out and he returned to Canada, unaware Malena had filed a police report. Asked the state of their marriage, Morales said it was “broken.”

After Malena and the boys came back to Brampton, they moved into an apartment together until their constant arguments led to a separation in May 2006.

He insisted Malena let him move back in a few months later and they bought a house under construction. But when Malena came home from work on July 10, 2006, he said they got into an argument about whether they could afford their next house payment.

Morales said his angry wife slapped him and demanded, “How can you promise things that you can’t give?”

According to Morales, Malena told him she didn’t love him anymore and only got back together so she could have a house. Her ex-boyfriend was going to take his place and he wasn’t going to see his kids again.

“My whole life was all a lie and everything was crumbling down,” he recalled feeling.

“She slapped me again and the next moment I was on top of her with my hands on her neck.”

It was said with an eerily calm voice.

Morales called her name but she didn’t reply. “I checked her pulse. She didn’t have one. That moment I started to cry – I couldn’t believe I had done such a terrible thing.”

Asked if he punched or kicked her or smashed her head – Malena had five broken ribs and a head injury – he said he didn’t remember.

Morales also couldn’t remember cleaning up the bloody scene, changing her clothes into pyjamas or positioning her as if she were sleeping. “I must have,” he said.

The next morning, he knew he’d have to flee the country. But first, Morales took his sons to play mini-golf.

“I was trying to give them one last happy day with their father, something to remember me by because I knew it wasn’t going to be the same anymore.”

After dropping them off at his brother’s home, he fled to Mexico City where he remained in hiding until his arrest in February 2020.

Symes concluded her gentle questioning with a few final questions.

“Did you strangle her?” “Yes, I did,” he replied.

He insisted he didn’t want to hurt or kill her.

“I lost control. I don’t have an explanation for it.”

Morales will be cross-examined on Monday.

mmandel@postmedia.com