‘My son stabbed me’: Mother testifies in son’s murder trial

CTV's Spencer Turcotte hears the emotional testimony from a mother taking the stand in her son's murder trial.

Warning: Some of the details in this story may be disturbing to some readers.

A mother gave tearful testimony on Friday at her son’s murder trial at the Waterloo Region Courthouse.

Dylon Moreira is accused of stabbing his mother, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s daughter at a Kitchener home on Nov. 15, 2022. The girl’s mother died from her stab wounds.

CTV News is not naming the two adult victims as they might inadvertently reveal the child’s identity, which is protected by a publication ban.

Moreira is charged with second-degree murder for his girlfriend’s death, two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

Moreira’s mother’s testimony

Dylan Moreira’s mother appeared virtually to testify in her son’s ongoing murder trial.

Crown prosecutor Thomas Mack asked the 53-year-old woman about some of the hardships the family faced leading up to the triple stabbing.

She told court about the death of Moreira’s father, the death of his brother in a tragic motorcycle crash and about her own cancer diagnosis, which she continues to battle.

In 2022, Moreira’s mother testified she was looking to sell their family home on Cayley Court in Kitchener because it had become too much to take care of for just her and Moreira.

She told court her son was struggling at that time and had a lot of anger, especially surrounding the idea of selling the house.

She recalls one conversation, in particular.

“Nobody else would own the house other than a Moreira, and if I were to sell it, he’d burn it to the ground,” the mother testified, repeating what he told her. “And I’d be in it.”

She eventually took the house off the market.

By Nov. 15, 2022, the night of the triple stabbing, Moreira’s mother told the court her son, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s daughter were spending a lot of time at the house.

His mother had nutritionists coming to the home to help feed her through an IV due to her cancer battle.

On that particular day, Moreira’s mother recalled her son and girlfriend came over with several large loads of laundry, and she vented to the nutritionist.

“Why don’t you slit my throat?” the mother said.

Later that night, she testified that she heard loud noises coming from the basement of the house. When she looked into the hallway to see what was happening, she said she saw her son running towards her.

“He was coming directly at me, so I took my IV pole and turned right around,” the mother testified.

Moreira’s mother told the court she tried to hide in a bathroom, but that her son overpowered her.

“He had a knife. He must have, because I was being stabbed. Blood just started coming out of me,” the mother said.

She first described being stabbed in the hand, and in the chaos, she remembered one moment where the knife did not penetrate her skin.

“I had a very big cross on, it hit my cross and [the cross] went to the floor,” she said.

Moreira’s mother told the court she had seven stab wounds from her hand up to her neck, where she says she was stabbed twice.

“The amount of blood that was shooting out the back of my neck was scary,” the mother said. “I think he thought I was … taken care of.”

She said her son left the room and she gained the strength to go over to her bedroom window and open it up.

“I just kept yelling, ‘My son stabbed me, my son stabbed me, my son stabbed me,’” she told the court, breaking down in tears.

After that, Moreira’s mother testified that she went downstairs and saw Moreira’s girlfriend’s daughter. At that point, she did not realize the seven-year-old girl had been stabbed too.

“And I said, ‘Let’s get out of here.’ And we just ran out of the house,” she testified, as she sobbed, telling the court she did not have time to grab the young girl’s shoes, despite snow being on the ground.

Nearly three years later, Moreira’s mother told the court how much she cares for her son.

“I love my son. He’s my son,” she said. “Him and me were supposed to be until the end, after everybody died.”

Moreira’s mother says son could become ‘the devil’

During cross-examination on Monday, Sept. 29, Moreira’s mother confirmed that her son stopped taking medication for his mental health because he didn’t like the way it made him feel.

When defence lawyer Stephen Gehl asked whether he stopped taking the medication a month or two before the stabbings, Moreira’s mother confirmed.

She testified that he would just snap out of nowhere, and that it wouldn’t make much sense where the anger was coming from.

“He could go from being a loving, caring soul to the devil,” Moreira’s mother told court.

Gehl also asked whether Moreira’s mother heard her son say that his girlfriend stabbed him first.

“I believe I did,” Moreira’s mother told court.

Gehl then made a series of suggestions. He suggested Moreira never said anything about burning the house down, that he never said anything about killing everybody in the house, that he never said anything about there being a bloodbath, that he never said anything about getting out of jail to harm his mother.

But prior to Gehl’s suggestions, Moreira’s mother said the defence lawyer could suggest whatever he wants, but that she knows what happened.

Surgeon calls injuries ‘fatal’

The Crown then called Dr. Samir Faidi to the stand, who is a general and trauma surgeon at Hamilton General Hospital.

Moreira’s mother was in Dr. Faidi’s care following the stabbings.

The Crown went through each of her injuries and asked Dr. Faidi to analyze the severity of them.

While going through the injuries, Gehl asked to pause the testimony for a brief moment because he noticed that Moreira appeared to nod off. Gehl told court he could understand why people nod off during this type of evidence.

When Dr. Faidi was referring to particular stab wounds to Moreira’s mother’s neck and upper-arm area, he testified how dangerous those injuries were.

“Those injuries were in the high-risk area … and could be fatal,” said Dr. Faidi.

WRPS constable calls it ‘worst scene’ he had been to

When Const. Matthew Boniface took the stand, he told court about what he saw when he arrived on scene the night of the incident.

Boniface described a male laying at the bottom of a set of stairs on top of a female, as he held on to her. The male and female were later determined to be Moreira and his girlfriend.

Const. Boniface described having a tough time moving Moreira off the woman. When officers finally did, he testified that he saw the woman had several stab wounds and she had no vital signs.

“In my nine years of policing, it was the worst scene I had ever been to,” Boniface told court.

Moreira’s girlfriend was taken in an ambulance to St. Mary’s Hospital in Kitchener, and Const. Boniface attended the emergency department.

“At 11:04 p.m. she was pronounced deceased,” Boniface testified, referring to Moreira’s girlfriend.