A Guelph man accused of killing his father two years ago says he was acting in self-defence, and was trying to de-escalate an altercation in their home that started over a disagreement over how much Jaspal Singh Sidhu does around the house.
But there is some contention on how a large blue knife went into the chest of Balbir Singh Sidhu, and how no blood was found on Jaspal's shirt.
Jaspal took the stand on the ninth day of his second-degree murder trial Thursday.
He detailed his version of events on the afternoon of Feb. 28, 2023 at 86 Hands Dr., which ended in the death of Balbir Singh Sidhu.
The events leading up to the struggle match up with what was stated earlier in the trial.
From Jaspal waking up to nobody home, and going outside early to shovel. He made a trip out to buy alcohol, marijuana and pop, and returned home.
He said after returning home from the Uber outing, he had half a bagel, some tea, cleaned up his dishes and retired to his bedroom, where he would drink a Rockstar vodka tallboy, had a couple mixed drinks in the span of a couple hours – he drank half of his second mixed drink – watched TV and had intermittent naps in between due to his insomnia.
“Roughly 30 minutes prior to my father coming to my door, I had ordered Burger King because I was hungry," Jaspal said.
Knowing the food was arriving soon, Jaspal said he got up and was sitting at his desk.
He said his door was locked, and he heard the handle.
“My father tried opening the door, he was kind of jimmying the handle and stuff like that, very aggressively,” Jaspal said.
Jaspal said Balbir didn’t knock at this point, and he heard him “say open the door," asking "why you have it locked.”
He went and opened the door, and saw Balbir standing in the doorway.
“I noticed that he was frustrated and upset about something,” Jaspal said, adding they had a small communication where he asked if Jaspal can help shovel the driveway.
“It was more of a demand,” he said.
Jaspal said he answered by saying he shovelled earlier, but his father “more emphasized what I didn’t do.”
He added he was willing to help, but needed to put on warmer clothes and use the bathroom first.
Jaspal said Balbir “tends to escalate things” and grabbed Jaspal’s shoulder.
It turned into a brief altercation that saw Balbir put Jaspal “in a partial headlock,” while Jaspal said he just wanted to get to the bathroom.
Jaspal said he had his father in a partial headlock as well, and the two “wrestled back and forth.”
He said he told his father he “isn’t a child” and that it was “unacceptable behaviour.”
Jaspal said he got room and walked toward the stairs. He said he heard Balbir’s footsteps behind him, and he turned around and asked his father “are you okay, why are you behaving like a child. It’s not normal behaviour."
He said Balbir “wasn’t very cooperative” and Jaspal was pushed a couple times.
At this point, Jaspal said he lost balance but caught himself, walked downstairs and into the kitchen to get a glass of water to drink.
“Our history is complicated, I just ignored everything,” he said.
He said Balbir confronted him at the sink, where he persisted about how Jaspal doesn't do anything around the house.
“I tried to leave, but at this point, he kind of grabbed my shirt,” Jaspal said, adding he got a bit upset because it was a newer shirt and he didn’t want it to stretch.
The whole time, Jaspal said he was trying to de-escalate the situation.
Jaspal said Balbir – who was facing the sink in the southwest corner of the kitchen – grabbed a “small steak knife” from the sink area and “moved it around my face.”
Jaspal asked his father if he “really wants to go down this path.”
He said Balbir made a gesture and Jaspal wanted to have a conversation.
He said Balbir made a second gesture, a stabbing motion that was “more intense” toward the middle of Jaspal’s abdomen but didn't connect.
Jaspal said at this point, he tried to restrain his father, who he said was the aggressor the whole time.
During the scuffle, Jaspal said he brought his father’s hand behind his back, knife in hand and the knife went into his father’s back.
“I realized what just happened, I kind of pulled back, my hand was still over his hand where the knife was,” Jaspal said.
“I pulled it back and I said to him ‘you need medical attention.’"
He said his father wasn’t behaving normally, and while he was concerned about his father, he was also trying to protect himself.
The struggle continued, and Jaspal is surveying his options to escape the situation.
“All I am registering is he is trying to kill me,” he said.
The next six stab wounds came in the midst of this struggle in the kitchen, but Jaspal can’t recall specifically how those wounds were incurred.
It got to a point where Jaspal said Balbir reached into the kitchen drawer and grabbed the blue knife, with the sheath on it.
Jaspal said he tried to pull it, but grabbed the sheath instead and Balbir had control of one knife in each hand.
With some space, Jaspal said he got to the opposite side of the island in the kitchen to create distance.
Jaspal said he is trying to assess an escape route, while also showing concern for his father and wondering where Balbir’s phone is.
They end up in what Jaspal calls a “wrestling match” at the north end of the island, and the struggle moves north toward the dining room.
Along the way, the struggle results in Balbir dropping the black knife, which was broken.
With the two locked up, Jaspal said Balbir tripped on a mat going into the dining room and the two of them fell together.
“I land on top of him, with the knife puncturing his chest,” Jaspal testified.
He said he was sitting on top of him, let go of everything, assesses the situation at hand, gets up, takes his socks off because they were wet in what he suspects is blood, and tried to find his father’s phone.
Jaspal said he went into the laundry room and the garage, closed the door and as he was going down the hall to go upstairs and retrieve his own phone, the doorbell rang and it was Guelph police.
He said all of these events – from the moment he opened his bedroom door to the time the knife punctured his father’s chest – happened in the span of about five minutes.
When Crown attorney Peter Keen went to cross-examine Jaspal Thursday afternoon, there were a couple points of contention he wanted cleared up.
One was how there was no blood found on Jaspal’s shirt, which was red and green.
When asked, Jaspal said his shirt was never tested for any blood stains, only observed with the naked eye.
Throughout Keen’s line of questioning, Jaspal emphasized his father was the aggressor the whole time.
When moving over to the dining room, Keen suggested Jaspal was the one holding onto his father initiating, not defending. He suggested Jaspal’s recollection of the dining room incident “doesn’t make sense.”
Keen suggested the two were not falling chest to chest, as the knife length makes that impossible.
Jaspal dismissed the notion, maintaining he was pulled as the two fell, and the force put the knife into Balbir’s chest.
Cross examination will continue Friday morning.
