A former Corrections Division training officer took the stand Friday at his murder and kidnapping trial and admitted to shooting his 66-year-old mother in the thigh in June 2016, but says he cannot recall firing two shots to her head that would have killed her instantly or within minutes, as a deputy medical examiner testified.

When Deputy Prosecutor Molly O’Neill asked Anthony F. Pereira II if he shot his mother above the knee, he paused, and said, “Yes I did.”

But when asked about the 3:30 p.m. June 10, 2016, shooting to her head, arm and eye, he replied: “I don’t remember none of that. I just remember screaming.” He mentioned his neighbor testified she heard a female screaming. “That was f—-g me screaming. Everything was going so fast, going in and out, I don’t know what the f—- was going on.”

Dr. Rachel Lange, former first deputy medical examiner in Honolulu, who performed the autopsy June 11, 2016, on Barbara Pereira, found that without treatment, the leg wound also could have independently caused death. The cause of death was multiple gunshot wounds, she said.

Pereira is not denying he fatally shot his mother. His lawyer, Harrison Kiehm, is attempting to prove the affirmative defense that his client experienced extreme mental and emotional disturbance, which caused him to lose control of his actions or conduct and commit the criminal act, such as in a crime of passion.

If he succeeds, Pereira could be found guilty of the lesser crime of manslaughter, rather than second-degree murder punishable by life imprisonment with the possibility of parole.

Pereira told the court that on Friday, June 10, 2016, his mother came to his house and he saw photos on his mom’s phone, which she had left on the counter.

“I seen one picture of my wife like she had blood all over her face. Scared the crap out of me. … There was this image of Autumn (his daughter), like somebody took her face off. … I got scared and started panicking.”

“I thought why would my mom have these pictures on the phone,” he said. “I thought that my mom killed my wife and daughter.”

But Pereira seemed stumped when the deputy prosecutor asked why he thought his daughter and wife were dead, when he testified earlier that he had spoken to them a day or two before the shooting, and his mother had been at his home multiple times over a period of three days from June 8 to June 10, 2016.

He repeated how he couldn’t remember everything because everything was happening so fast.

“My mom was the love of my life,” he said, and she was planning to move in to watch over him.

The 52-year-old said he did not consume methamphetamine on the days leading up to the fatal shooting of his mother, nor on that day.

But Dodie Guzman, a Waianae woman he met at a mutual friend’s house, who alleges she was held captive in his Maili home for three days, said she saw him smoking a pipe on June 10, 2016.

The Honolulu Police Department’s drug lab tested a crystal-like substance, found in a plastic bag that fell from his shorts at the hospital, which tested positive for meth.

Psychologist John Compton, who was called as a defense witness, testified he had evaluated Pereira three times for court-ordered mental examinations to determine fitness to stand trial, Oct. 10, 2016, April 18, 2017, and July 11, 2017.

He initially was not found fit to proceed to trial.

Initially, Compton thought Pereira might have schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder and thought he should be at the State Hospital, but later ruled those out.

Compton said Pereira fluctuated in his depression and that his severe methamphetamine use disorder was in remission in a controlled environment, as well as his moderate alcohol use disorder.

In his most recent evaluation, Compton said Pereira had a clear understanding of his legal status and possible outcomes, that his use of alcohol and meth were seen as a way to cope with depression, and that meth consumption was likely the most contributing factor.

Compton said the staff at the State Hospital were reluctant to share that Pereira was exaggerating symptoms of psychosis or deficiencies of function.

“I’ve seen persons who have had strong feelings about their parents who might attack them, might give them trouble. It might seem normal, but they do have problems that they don’t understand,” Compton said.

He said persons “who have been taking meth can look smart, but could have damage to the brain.”

Kiehm asked, “You’re saying emotions can dictate cognitive capacity?”

Compton said, “Yes.”

Pereira denies he initiated the invitation to Guzman to take a quick trip to his house and claims she invited him to her place, and made clear he was just interested in talking.

Guzman said Pereira was depressed and he kept talking about his wife, staring at her wedding dress hanging in the house, but he wouldn’t let her leave. She tried to support him.

“She was just there for some therapy, I guess, somebody I could talk to” Pereira said, but didn’t hold her there and allowed her to take his truck to get a change of clothes.

But Pereira said he was embarrassed Guzman was there when his mom arrived because he was confiding in “some total stranger,” but couldn’t talk to his mom about things he discovered regarding his wife’s affairs.

His wife blames herself because of her years of infidelities, including one involving Pereira’s co-worker, and leaving her husband multiple times.

“It was my fault because of being depressed about me,” said April Pereira, who testified Friday as a defense witness. “If I had been honest with my husband, this would never have happened.”

She said things escalated after her husband fell at work in 2013 and was diagnosed with Crohn’s disease. Prescription steroids coupled with methamphetamine use “were the two main things” that caused him to act the way he did June 10, 2016, she said.

She said that she was behind on the mortgage and other bills.