A Toronto man charged with the first-degree murder of his ex-wife and daughter took the witness stand in his own defence on Friday and denied planning to kill them, saying he just exploded that day.
“My anger exploded. I was asking for my passport and Angelica was showing she had no concern for my mother, the person who took care of her. That’s the time my anger exploded. I was very, very mad,” Godfrey Sig-Od said through a Tagalog interpreter.
Sig-Od said he planned to renew his passport with the help of his ex-wife Elvie Sig-Od, 44, and their daughter Angelica Sig-Od, 20, on Aug. 26, 2022, so he could return to the Philippines because he realized his marriage was over.
When his daughter and ex-wife arrived at the boarding house where he was living, Sig-Od testified he got into Elvie’s car but she told him he would first have to pay him the $3,000 she said he owed her for sponsoring him to come to Canada and for the lawyer.
“I was telling her, ‘Just give it to me. Somebody I know will help me.’ That person was not even asking for payment. I just have to buy him lunch.”
Sig-Od said he couldn’t remember what time he was picked up that day because he was unable to sleep all night. “I was having trouble with my passport? How can I get it back?”
He didn’t remember where they were driving but recalled saying to Elvie, “It turns out you’re just after the money. Everything is money, money.” Sig-Od also said he asked Angelica if she had sent money to his mother, her grandmother back in the Philippines.
Court has heard that Sig-Od’s mother was the one who helped raise Angelica until she was nine years old. Elvie moved to Hong Kong when Angelica was only a toddler and Sig-Od testified that Elvie stopped sending money to support their daughter.
Sig-Od said Angelica replied, “Why should I use my money to send? She’s your mother. I told you before, the only family I have is from my mother’s side.” When defence lawyer Daniel Brodsky asked him how that made him feel, he replied, “That’s why I got mad, because I saw she had no concern for my mother, the one who took care of her when she was young.”
The 49-year-old said he went into his bag to look for his wallet and his cellphone and that’s when he saw the knife. He could not remember how the car jumped the curb on Bathurst Street because he was very, very mad.
“All I know was my anger exploded and I do not know what happened,” he said, making a stabbing motion with his hand. “What I know next is they were all lying there and they were all bloody and I was saying ‘Why did you do this to me?’
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
“Then I was saying, ‘Why?’ I was only asking for my passport and my PR (permanent resident) card … this is the fate of people who are only after money. And then I was saying ‘You cheated on me and you were just after money.’”
Brodsky asked if Sig-Od planned and deliberated the killing of his wife and daughter. Sig-Od said he did not. He also said he had no recollection of getting out of the car.
Brodsky told the court that a witness testified that Sig-Od picked up the knife and started coming towards him. He asked if he remembered that happening.
“No, I can’t remember. What I can remember is I picked up the knife and afterward, I threw away the knife. When I saw Angelica and Elvie were lying, I grabbed the knife and I threw it. The knife was already in my hand.”
The jury has already heard Elvie was stabbed 14 times and Angelica was stabbed 19 times. When asked how many times he stabbed them, Sig-Od responded, “I don’t remember. I was very mad. I said, ‘Why did you do this to me?’”
Brodsky asked about a witness who testified to seeing him on his knees, crying and distraught. “That’s true,” he responded. “That is the time that I was referring to. I was saying, ‘Why did you do this? You ruined everything. Is this only because of $3,000? Is that how much both of your lives are worth?’”
Sig-Od earlier testified that he came to Canada from the Philippines in 2019 after his wife Elvie Sig-Od sponsored him. He said he was shocked because the couple was estranged. He said Elvie had left the Philippines to originally work in Hong Kong when their daughter was a toddler.
When he arrived in Canada, Sid-Od testified the couple lived in Markham with Angelica, whom the mother had sponsored years earlier without Sig-Od’s knowledge. Sig-Od testified they were sleeping in separate bedrooms and he went to work three days after arriving.
He testified that on Oct. 6, 2020, he had a fight with Elvie after he got a text from a cousin saying his mother, who sold vegetables for a living back in the Philippines, could not work and was out of money. When he asked if they could send money to his mother, Elvie said no.
Brodsky asked about another incident on that day.
The jury heard the argument started when Angelica left a note on the fridge which said: “Sharing is caring”. The note insinuated that Sig-Od was eating everything inside the fridge. In a videotaped statement played in court that Elvie gave police, she told the officer she overheard Godfrey tell Angelica, “Be thankful your grandmother is there because if not, you’re dead a long time ago.”
He testified that he asked Angelica to talk to Elvie about sending money back to her grandmother. “And then she said, ‘If you’d like to know, I’m only considering family on my mother’s side. I don’t consider family on my mother’s side.’ That’s why I said, ‘If it wasn’t for your grandmother, you’d be long dead because your mother was not supporting you when you were little because your mother was not sending any money.”
He denied that he was threatening Angelica but admitted to punching a table. “I told them, ‘You better be careful when my mother dies. You’ve got to watch out. You will get the wrath of me.’”
Sig-Od said he then messaged his cousin and told him that he couldn’t send money home for his mother because Elvie does not want to give him any money and she’s the one in charge of the ATM.
He said the couple stopped talking but one day, they went to the mall together and he went for a walk without her. When he saw her again, he noticed she was “lip to lip” with another man.
Sig-Od testified while Elvie first denied the man was anything other than a friend, days later, he saw the two leaving the gym together and later challenged the man to a fistfight. “After one or two hours, Elvie texted me. She told me to, ‘Leave from the house. I no longer love you. Do not wait for the police to send you away.’”
Sig-Od said when he saw Elvie, she confirmed she had a boyfriend. “I got mad at that time. I almost punched her. She said, ‘Go try it’. I took my bag and left.”
He testified he had nowhere to live and spent one night sleeping at a subway station and another night in a park before a cousin from the Philippines found him a rooming house where he could live.
Brodsky asked about the incident on Nov. 20, 2020, when Elvie came to his work and asked if he had signed divorce papers. The jury has seen a videotaped statement that Elvie gave York Regional Police in which she says on that day, he had been planning to kill her and take out her two eyes.
“No, I did no such thing. I told her you are a whore,” Sig-Od said.
Sig-Od who has pleaded not guilty to two counts of first-degree murder will be cross-examined on Monday.
