I didn’t want to die like this’

 A man dying of burns to 80 per cent of his body told a police officer that an acquaintance poured gas over him and lit him on fire without explanation, a court has heard.
“I didn’t want to die like this,” Robert George Brown told the constable as an ambulance rushed them to Sunnybrook hospital.
Const. Carlos Pareja testified yesterday that the 44-year-old victim said he was sitting in the backyard of his west Toronto townhouse having drinks with Michael Hall.
“I was a little depressed.... My wife is dying of cancer,” Brown told the officer.
“Buddy said, ‘Do you want to die?’” the burn victim continued.
Pareja also asked Brown if he and Hall had been fighting.
“No, not at all,” was Brown’s reply. He was screaming in pain between answers, Pareja told prosecutor Michael Townsend.
Hall, 35, has pleaded not guilty in Ontario Superior Court to second-degree murder in the May 20, 2009, burning death on Jasper Avenue, near Weston Road and Black Creek Drive.
Pareja recalled that when he arrived at the house Brown was sitting on the front steps, staring, as if in shock.
“I couldn’t even tell what race he was. His skin was multi-coloured ... greenish, yellowish and greyish,” Pareja said.