Despres tried to avoid people while hitchhiking to border

A man who picked up Gregory Despres in the summer of 2005says he no longer offers rides to hitchhikers.

Despres, 25, is on trial for two counts of first-degree murder in connection with the deaths of his elderly neighbours. He has pleaded not guilty.

Fred Fulton, 74, and Verna Decarie, 70, were found dead in their Minto, N.B., home on April 26, 2005. Both were stabbed repeatedly and Fulton was decapitated.

Gregory Harnish testifiedin the Court of Queen's Bench in Fredericton on Thursday that he spotted Despres walking in the rain near St. Stephen, N.B., while he was delivering newspapers.

When he pulled over he realized Despres was wearing a helmet and was carrying a chainsaw, knives and a hatchet.

Harnish told the court Despres's accessories struck him as odd, but the accused told him he was hoping to get a job working in the woods.

After they drove into St. Stephen, Despres said he needed to use a phone but when Harnish offered to drop him off at a mall, he said he didn't want to go to a place with many people, Harnish testified.

"It kind of struck me as odd for someone to say something like that and I started thinking to myself, 'OK, I am just going to drop him off and be on my way,'" Harnish told CBC News outside the courtroom.

"A lot of things go through your mind. You realize how unsafe the world is nowadays — that you can't even offer assistance to someone without thinking about your own welfare, which is kind of sad," Harnish said.

The court also heard on Thursday that Despres had been spotted changing his clothes in an alley in St. Stephen.A pair of pants left in a shopping cart were later turned over to police.

Edward Young was the last witness to testify on Thursday. He was stopped at the border into the United States at Calais, Maine, at the same time as Despres.

"I seen when he came in with the weapons and I said jokingly, it doesn't look like you're going anywhere either, and he turned to me while sipping his coffee and turned to me calmly and coolly and said, I am an assassin and I am heading home," Young said.

First trial stopped

Border guards who allowed Despres to enter the United States are scheduled to testify on Friday.

Despres told U.S. border officials that he was a marine sniper and an assassin with 700 kills.

This is Despres's second trial. It is being heard by judge alone.

His first trial was halted in February after he exhibited bizarre behaviour in the courtroom. After a psychiatric assessment, he was declared unfit to stand trial in April and ordered to undergo treatment for paranoid schizophrenia.

In July, a provincial review board ruled Despres had responded well to psychiatric treatment, understood the court proceedings and the charges against him, and was fit to stand trial again.

Despres was arrested in Massachusetts on April 27, 2005.