FREDERICTON - U.S. border officers are telling a New Brunswick murder trial that although accused killer Gregory Despres tried to pass himself off as a member of the American military, he couldn't answer simple questions about the U.S. forces.
Customs agent John Sermersheim says that when he spoke to Despres at the Calais, Maine, border crossing the New Brunswick man said his story could be verified with the NSA. But when Sermersheim asked Despres what NSA stood for, he answered National Space Agency.
It actually stands for National Security Administration.
Court heard Despres was a bit spacey when he showed up at the crossing on the morning of April, 25, 2005, the day before the butchered bodies of his former New Brunswick neighbours were found in their home.
Fred Fulton, 74, and his wife Verna Decarie, 70, had been stabbed repeatedly and Fulton had been decapitated in the couple's home in the New Brunswick coal-mining village of Minto.
Despres, who faces two charges of first-degree murder, told Sermersheim he was heading to Kansas to see someone he called Capt. Beck.
He was travelling by foot and appeared to border guards to be delusional and disoriented.
But Sermersheim says that he handed the border guards his U. S. passport, he acted as if he knew it was his ticket home.
The guards have told the court they can't refuse U.S. citizens entry to their country.
Despres was allowed entry but the guards confiscated the small arsenal of weapons he had been carrying, including a sword, a chainsaw, a knife, brass knuckles and pepper spray.
