A man accused of murdering one of his best friends has admitted to stabbing him, but insists it was all in self-defence.
Robert Belbin knew Seamus Secord well from their days in high school, hanging out, smoking weed and playing video games.
But Belbin also knew Secord to be a violent drug dealer, backed up by the criminal record shown to the jury at Belbin’s second-degree murder trial this morning, as the 24-year-old took the stand in his own defence.
The scene on Mayor Avenue on Febraury 7, 2023 (VOCM News)
He’s accused of stabbing Secord to death on Mayor Avenue in February of 2023, during what Belbin described as one of Secord’s angry outbursts after about $30,000 worth of street pills went missing from his house.
Secord first accused another man of taking them, but when Belbin intervened, he said Secord turned on him.
There was a screaming match and Belbin left, but he said Secord came after him, lunging at him with a knife. Belbin dodged that, admitting he grabbed the blade and stabbed Secord as they wrestled on the ground. It lasted about a minute, said Belbin, who said he went one way while Secord headed back to his house — where he bled out in his garage.
The autopsy has already determined that Secord was stabbed nine times, any one of which would’ve killed the 22-year-old.
Belbin, who has also admitted having a criminal record of his own, was asked about his mindset during the ordeal.
“I was scared,” he said. “I thought he was going to stab me. I was like fighting for my life.”
The trial is continuing at Supreme Court in St. John’s.
