Richard Bain wanted to become a minister to jail inmates

Accused murderer Richard Bain told a jury that he's read the Bible front to back twice, and that he once hoped to become a minister.

Earlier this week, Bain told the jury he's an evangelist, andon Thursday the court heard that in 2013he was studying to become a minister while in jail.

• Follow CBC liveblogof RichardBain'stestimony below

Bainisaccused of first-degree murder for shooting and killing a manoutside thePartiQubcoiselection-night victory rally on Sept. 4, 2012. Another person was also seriously injured.

Bain'slawyer, AlanGuttman,is arguing his clientis not criminally responsible becauseof a mental disorder.

In anApril 2013meeting betweenBain who was representing himself at the timeandSgt-Det. DanielPrieur, Bainexcitedly tells the detective about his plans.

"I'm studying to be a minister," he says.

The jury was shown a video of thethe 2013 meeting, in whichBainis wearing a necklace with a crucifix on it.

He says that he met with a psychiatrist,and spoke to her about religion.

"When you talk about the Bible to people who don't know it, people think you're crazy," Bain says.

Bain testified on Thursday that at the time he was hoping to minister to inmatesonce he got out of jail.

He told the jury that while he read his Bible thoroughly and listened to church services on the radio, he was not able to take any formal courses from jail.

Defence lawyer Alan Guttman has finished questioning his client, and the prosecution's cross-examination of Bainis expected to begin Friday morning.

'A lot of wrongs'

Bain also toldthe court that looking back now, he sees "a lot of wrongs" in his past.

"There's a lot of things that have transpired that I wish had not."

High on the list of Bain's regrets is his decision to split up with his girlfriend of 20 years, a decision which he says was influenced bythe anti-depressant drug, Cymbalta.

The jury also heard that Bain has "deep sorrow" for the victims.

"There's so many mornings Iwake up and Irealize I'm injail and I thinkof the victims and everybody who suffered through this. There's no personal gain in it,"Baintestified.

Bain blames drug

Bainhas told the court thatwhen he was depressed, or on an anti-depressant calledCymbalta, he'd do things without thinking, or things that weren't reasonable.

But he says he's a different person now that he's on new medication.He currently takes an anti-depressant (Effexor)in the morning and an anti-psychotic (Abilify)in the evening.

• CBC'scomplete coverage of theRichardBainmurder trial
• What we know so far about Quebec's deadly election-night shooting

Since first entering the witness boxon Monday,Bainhas maintained he has no memory of the night of the shooting.

In the hours prior, he says he took sixpills possibly anti-depressants and had a vision of his dead mother. He testified that his memory doesn't come back to him untilthe second interrogation, when he realizedhe was in trouble.

The trial is expected to last until the end of July.