‘I wanted to confront him’: LaSalle man testifies at his first-degree murder trial

A LaSalle man testified Monday at his first-degree murder trial. CTV Windsor’s Michelle Maluske explains.

A LaSalle man testified Monday at his first-degree murder trial.

Warning: Contains graphic content

Glen Mayer, 49, told the jury he went to Tony Bechara’s home armed with a handgun, but no intention to kill him.

“The gun was for me,” Mayer testified. “I wanted to take my life.”

In the early morning hours of Jan. 20, 2024, Mayer had confirmed what he suspected to be true; that his wife was having an affair with Bechara.

They worked together at a Tecumseh bar.

“I wanted to confront him,” Mayer testified. “I wanted to let him know he destroyed my family.”

In the months before the shooting, Mayer said he and his wife were “bickering” all the time and arguing.

“She was removed from the marriage,” Mayer recalls.

Overnight that January day, Mayer found messages between Bechara and his wife.

In response, Mayer texted Bechara “Today everybody loses. I’m going to speed up your karma.”

He also says he warned Bechara that his wife had a new “mark”; another co-worker she was allegedly interested in.

“If she cheated on me, she’s going to cheat on you,” Mayer texted Bechara.

He also sent the message thread between his wife and Bechara to her family members.

“I wanted them to know what she had done,” Mayer explained.

While driving from his LaSalle home to Bechara’s home in Lakeshore, Mayer admitted he was consuming liquor and beer.

He knocked on the rear sliding door of Bechara’s home; Bechara let him in because they were friends.

“We need to talk,” Mayer said to Bechara.

A conversation quickly turned heated Mayer said before Bechara shoved him into some furniture, allegedly saying “What are you going to do about it (the affair)?”

“I see he’s grabbing a knife and all I remember is me shooting at him,” Mayer emotionally explained to the jury.

“I could see he wasn’t breathing or moving,” Mayer said, so he threw the gun into the kitchen sink and threw the knife towards the kitchen.

Mayer left the house through the backyard, drove back to LaSalle where he hugged his children and asked his father to take him to the LaSalle Police station.

Mayer didn’t elaborate more on how he planned to hurt himself other than to say in the three to four months before the shooting his marriage was falling apart and he started to consider taking his own life.

Cross-examination

Assistant Crown Attorney Craig Houle was critical of Mayer on cross-examination about fabricating the thoughts of suicide as an explanation after the fact.

Mayer admitted he wasn’t planning to kill himself at Bechara’s home but couldn’t offer an explanation for why he entered the home armed with a Glock handgun loaded with a full magazine.

“You weren’t going anywhere to kill yourself. You were going to kill Mr. Bechara,” Houle put to Mayer.

“I disagree,” Mayer said.

“You were gonna exact some revenge.” Houle say.

“No.” was all Mayer would say.

Houle argued if Mayer did in fact intend to commit suicide, why didn’t he hug his children before leaving his home?

It was only after the shooting – and before he turned himself in police – that Mayer hugged his children and asked to see his father.

Mayer testified that he was “very” intoxicated after a night of drinking and lack of sleep.

Again, he had no explanation for how he managed to drive for an hour between his home to LaSalle to Bechara’s in Lakeshore without getting in an accident, hitting any parked cars, or catching the attention of police.

Mayer also denies the text “I’m going to speed up karma” sent to Bechara just hours before the shooting, is not threatening in any way but rather a statement that he wanted Bechara to feel the betrayal he felt.

After the shooting, Mayer sent all of his closest friends a screengrab of the messages between his wife and Bechara, before writing “Better call Saul”; a pop culture reference to needing a lawyer based on the popular television show.

“That’s pretty flippant,” Houle said to Mayer. “You wanted your wife to be the villain.”

Mayer is the only witness called by defence lawyer Julianna Greenspan.

The jury was sent home until Wednesday morning for closing arguments.