‘I blacked out. I’m sorry': Police body cam video shown at Guelph, Ont. man’s second-degree murder trial

Testimony continued Tuesday at the second-degree murder trial of Jaspal Singh Sidhu, the man accused of fatally stabbing his father. Ashley Bacon reports.

Warning: This story contains disturbing details of a crime scene.

More body-worn camera footage from first responders was shown Tuesday at the second-degree murder trial of a Guelph, Ont. man.

Jaspal Singh Sidhu is accused of killing his father during a dispute at their Hands Drive home on Feb. 28, 2023.

Trial Day 1

During his opening statement on Monday, Crown Attorney Peter Keen stated 68-year-old Balbir Singh Sidhu had been stabbed eight times. Two of those wounds, he claimed, would have been fatal.

An officer with the Guelph Police Service also testified that she saw a large kitchen knife sticking out of Balbir Singh Sidhu’s chest and his hand was gripping the handle. She said a second knife was lying beside his body, broken into pieces.

Video from the constable’s body-worn camera was also shown to the jury.

In it, Jaspal Singh Sidhu said: “He grabbed a bigger knife, and I don’t know what happened.”

Trial Day 2

Another officer with the Guelph Police Service took the stand on the second day of the trial.

Const. Richard Maclean also responded to the Hands Drive home and his body-worn camera footage was shown to the jury.

In it, Jaspal Singh Sidhu told the officer: “Dad tried to kill me.”

“I just countered, I just tried to protect myself. I’m sorry,” he continued in the video. “He went back to the kitchen to get a bigger knife. I don’t know what the [expletive] happened. I blacked out. I’m sorry.”

Aryan Bharadwaj, one of the five tenants who lived in the basement of the Hands Drive home at the time of Balbir Singh Sidhu’s death, also testified.

He said he heard yelling and arguing upstairs that day, and it was one of his roommates who called 911.

Bharadwaj stated he left to go to work before first responders arrived at the home.

The final witness of the day was forensic identification officer Chadd McNeilly, from the Guelph Police Service.

He presented several images taken during the investigation between Feb. 28, 2023 and March 2, 2023. Among them, a photo of the knife that was pulled from Balbir Singh Sidhu’s chest during the subsequent post-mortem.

McNeilly is expected to continue his testimony on Wednesday.

Keen, meanwhile, told the court 14 witnesses will testify for the Crown over the next two weeks of the trial.

- With reporting by Ashley Bacon