Haverty murder trial Day 8: The accused takes the witness stand: 'I wanted to scare him'

(Editor's note: this story contains subject matter and language that some my find offensive)

Sean Haverty had been drinking steadily for around nine hours the day he shot and killed Chris Schweitzer.

A self-described binge drinker, he was extremely drunk when he decided to go over to Schweitzer's house, two doors down on Tiffany St. E., and "scare" the person he had a long-running feud with.

He took with him a revolver he had owned for 25 years, bought for protection from his days as a cross-border truck driver.

Seconds later Haverty was bleeding profusely from major cuts to the face and Schweitzer was dead from a bullet to the neck.

Haverty took to the witness stand in his own defence Wednesday and told the jury in his first degree murder trial that he acted in self-defence.

Wearing a grey pinstripe suit, off-white dress shirt, no tie and prison-issue pumps, Haverty spent just over an hour answering questions from his lawyer Ari Goldkind in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

"I used very poor judgement that day. I wish that I could turn back time, but obviously I can't," Haverty said

Goldkind: "Did you act to defend yourself at the door with Chris Schweitzer?"

Haverty: "I feared for my life and further injury. I didn't know how much further they were going to take it."

It was no secret that the two men had a simmering feud.

Haverty, an unemployed truck driver originally from the Chatham-Kent area who had lived in Guelph for 19 years, said the two often argued.

He didn't like Schweitzer. He said Schweitzer, who had mental health and addiction issues, and his girlfriend Missy Chartrand argued a lot, bringing police to their quiet street. Haverty said he felt like "a prisoner in my own home."

Haverty said Schweitzer would sometimes "freak out" at him and take on a "deranged look."

On one occasion he was backing out of his driveway and a heated argument with Schweitzer ensued.

"He was very irate ... said I tried to run his dog over ... starts to become very deranged looking," Haverty said. "He said 'I know where you live. I'm going to F you up."

Haverty said he called the police but they were "too busy" to attend and he went to work.

"I couldn't enjoy the neighbourhood. They (Schweitzer and his wife) brought an element to the neighbourhood," Haverty said.

On the afternoon of the day Schweitzer was killed, Haverty said he was "highly intoxicated" and went over to Schweitzer's house with a knife and began yelling outside the windows of Schweitzer's home.

"I wanted to scare him," he replied when his lawyer asked him why he went over there.

Schweitzer and his wife weren't home and after a few minutes Haverty returned to his house and continued drinking.

Around 7:30 p.m. he went over to the Schweitzer home again, this time carrying his fully-loaded Rossi .38 special.

"I wanted to scare him. Get my point across that I didn't appreciate him skulking around my house and giving me dirty looks," Haverty said. "I wanted him to stop hanging around in front of my house."

Haverty banged on the door of 16 Tiffany and Schweitzer answered. The accused said Chartrand was in the background, calling him a "fucking asshole." Another man, Schweitzer's friend Ken Trainer, was also in the porch.

"I told him 'if you ever come on my property, you're going to get shot,'" Haverty said, adding that he was outside the porch on the path, the gun in his pocket.

"I think Chris had a few things to say, cursing me, then I got hit with something."

That something was a glass bong that Schweitzer had brought to the door with him.

Haverty testified that he didn't know what he got hit with or how many times, only that he had been hit "pretty good" and that his face was covered in blood.

"I thought that my life was in danger," Haverty said.

With blood in his eyes affecting his vision and falling backwards and onto his knees, he said he then pulled the gun out of his pocket and fired two shots "in rapid succession" at an upwards angle.

He said he didn't know where he was firing or if he hit anyone. He didn't see Schweitzer fall down.

Haverty said what he was doing was trying to "ward off any further attack."

A panicked Haverty went home, stashed the gun in a drainpipe behind his home and drove to Groves Memorial Hospital in Fergus for treatment to his face because he was "not a fan of Guelph General Hospital" and its longer wait times.

He wore sandals. Took no other clothes with him. In his pocket was $2,800, proceeds from the sale of items on Kijiji that he preferred to carry with him.

An itemized list of items sold on Kijiji was later found in Haverty's bedroom, totaling close to the amount found in his pocket.

Asked by Goldkind if he planned to run away somewhere and go into hiding, he replied "no."

Later that night OPP officers found him at Groves and placed him under arrest. He said that was the first he knew he had killed someone.

"I was shocked," Haverty said.

Crown attorney Judith MacDonald will begin her cross-examination of Haverty on Thursday morning.