‘The voices were telling me to protect myself’: Kitchener, Ont. man testifies in own murder trial

Dylon Moreira is on trial for second-degree murder and took the stand in his own defence. CTV’s Spencer Turcotte explains.

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

A man dressed in a baggy white shirt and grey trackpants walked slowly to the front of a Kitchener courtroom on Monday morning.

The man’s ankles were shackled as an officer escorted him to the witness stand. He introduced himself as 34-year-old Dylon Moreira.

Moreira is accused of stabbing his mother, his girlfriend and his girlfriend’s daughter at a Kitchener home on Nov. 15, 2022. His girlfriend 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, as well as two counts of attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault.

Moreira testifies in own murder trial

Defence lawyer Stephen Gehl began on Monday by asking Moreira about his ongoing mental health struggles.

Moreira told court about the long list of medications he takes in order to manage his symptoms.

He testified that he began hearing voices in his head around 2016 or 2017.

“People that I know,” Moreira told court, referring to the voices he heard. “Mostly my brother, my dad.”

Both Moreira’s brother and father died unexpectedly.

Moreira said some days he could hear up to 30 different voices telling him: “That I shouldn’t trust anybody.”

On the day of the stabbings in November 2022, Moreira testified that he and his girlfriend snorted crystal meth.

He told court that same day he found a virus on his computer and believed his girlfriend’s son caused it.

Moreira testified he was upset and when he brought it up to his girlfriend, she denied it was her son’s fault. Moreira said he heard his brother’s voice in his head chime in.

“Everybody was lying to me,” he said the voice told him, and that he should not trust his girlfriend.

Moreira testified the argument escalated when he walked away.

“I felt something hit me in the back of the head,” Moreira told court.

At that point, Moreira said he did not know he had been stabbed and didn’t realize until he saw his injured dog.

“I seen her stab my dog,” Moreira testified, referring to his girlfriend’s actions.

The dog later died.

Moreira told court that a struggle ensued as he tried to get a knife from his girlfriend. He said he was wounded several times in the process but was successful in getting the knife. That’s when things took another turn.

“I stabbed [her]. The voices were telling me to protect myself,” Moreira testified.

He said he doesn’t recall stabbing his mother or girlfriend’s daughter, but he did not deny that he did it.

Moreira told court the next thing he remembered was police waking him up and telling them that his girlfriend stabbed him first.

“[And] that they were going to kill me,” Moreira testified.

During cross-examination, Crown prosecutor Thomas Mack read from the transcript of a conversation between Moreira and a detective where Moreira asked how he got the injuries on his head, and whether he fell down stairs at his home.

The Crown suggested that Moreira does not remember ever being stabbed by his girlfriend and that his testimony in court on Monday did not line up with the timeline of events he previously told police.

Mack suggested Moreira snapped and that his intention was to kill his girlfriend because he stabbed her 21 times. Moreira denied that was his intention.

The trial is adjourned until Tuesday morning.