Lynn murder suspect testifies

SALEM – A Lynn man testified Friday that a voice in his head told him to kill his mother, and he subsequently killed his grandmother so she wouldn’t call the police.”I had a cyst on my forehead and got that removed and right around that time started hearing a voice,” Joseph Wright III said during cross examination in Salem Superior Court Friday.But when Essex Assistant District Attorney Michael Patten asked Wright about his thoughts, actions and emotions as he committed the killings, dumped the bodies behind a Saugus school and then fled to Canada, Wright repeatedly gave the same answer.”I don’t remember,” Wright said as Patten tried to essentially walk the defendant through his alleged actions surrounding the killings.Wright, 25, has been charged with first-degree murder in the April 30, 2012 deaths of Donna Breau, 54, and Melba Trahant, 83. Breau was Wright’s mother and Trahant his grandmother.Wright has admitted that he killed both women at the family’s home at 94 Sheridan St. in Lynn. He testified Friday that he killed Breau first; entering her bedroom in the second-floor apartment and slashing her throat with a kitchen knife. Wright testified he subsequently went downstairs into Trahant’s apartment and, thinking his grandmother noticed his blood-covered clothing and was calling police, killed his grandmother by also slashing her throat with the kitchen knife.Wright subsequently dropped the bodies behind the Lynnhurst Elementary School in Saugus and fled in Trahant’s car to Canada, where he was arrested after trying to flee a border checkpoint, according to testimony. Wright also admitted Friday that he confessed to Canadian officials that he had killed his mother and grandmother.However, as with the killings, Wright was vague on details.”I remember the gist of it, pretty much confessing, but I don’t remember what I said,” Wright told Patten.Defense Attorney John Morris has argued throughout the trial that Wright was under the influence of drugs and alcohol at the time of the killings and that the killings don’t meet the required elements of extreme atrocity or cruelty and premeditation.Wright testified Friday that he was “drinking, smoking weed and popping pills” surrounding the time of the killings.Most notably, however, Wright testified that he was hearing a voice that told him to kill his mother, whom he said he had grown to resent for “not being there” for him as a child and teenager.Wright testified that this voice began several days prior to the killings after surgery to remove a cyst. (Morris pointed out a scar from the surgery that could be seen in Wright’s booking photo.) Wright said he wasn’t sure if the surgery caused the voice.But Wright also testified that he was not completely influenced by this voice.Wright acknowledged that, on the night of the killing, he first went to his mother’s bedroom on hearing the voice but then walked away. He said he couldn’t remember how long it was before he retrieved a knife from the kitchen and went in and slashed his mother’s throat.Wright also testified he didn’t hear voices telling him to kill his grandmother, whom he agreed “was always there for (him).” But he said he thought she was calling the police, so he admitted he grabbed a pillow and put it over Trahant’s face while he slashed her throat.But as Patten questioned Wright on visceral details of the killings – what happened when Wright slit the throat of the 83-year-old Trahant; did Wright try to comfort his victims; and what Wright replied when his grandmother asked him why he was attacking her, for instance – Wright answered with his consistent response: “I don’t remember.”On redirect, Morris asked Wright whether there was any particular reason why he responded this way.”Not that I know of,” Wright said.Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday at 9 a.m.