Edward Mason, the man accused of killing Germain Gaulin last April, was not predisposed to aggressive and violent behaviour, according to forensic psychiatrist Todd Tomita.

Information gathered from an interview with Mason and reports from others who knew him 'suggested he was a peaceful person,' the Vancouver-based psychiatrist told Yukon Supreme Court on Monday.

Alcohol seems to be the key player in this drama, the court has heard.

Mason, 64, was heavily intoxicated the night he fired the two shots that killed Gaulin, 43, at a cabin near Watson Lake.

The court heard that Mason had a history of alcohol-induced amnesia. This means he sometimes experienced blackouts during or after heavy drinking.

During these blackouts, Mason would lose hours of his life, unable to remember what he had done and where he had been during the intervening hours, court heard.

He had five major alcohol-induced blackouts, according to Tomita. The first occurrence Mason could remember happened at the age of 30, Tomita testified. The most recent bout until the murder happened about 10 years ago.

'He said there were others, but these were the (blackouts) that disturbed him the most,' Tomita said.

'The first he remembered was when he lost a significant amount of time. For example, he travelled a long distance for up to a day.'

Sometimes after bouts of heavy drinking, Mason also heard voices, court was told.

Once, for example, his dead friend Jim gave him directions on how to fix the propane tank he was working on.

Another time, he heard his deceased father speaking to him.

According to Tomita, these encounters with imagined voices were simply conversational. They did not command Mason to hurt himself or others.

Mason was afraid of the voices though, and wondered why they were there. He wanted to forget about them.

'This suggests a degree of insight,' Tomita told the court. 'He knew his mind was playing tricks on him.'

It's very hard to make the connection between consuming large amounts of alcohol and these types of hallucinations, Tomita said.

He could not state medically whether the hallucinations were alcohol-induced, or whether the alcohol Mason consumed released an underlying disorder.

This is the key issue that will be argued in court over the course of Mason's trial, as he has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder by reason of mental disorder.

In order to qualify for this defence, section 16 of the Criminal Code, the judge must rule that Mason either did not realize what he was doing, or that he could not decipher the difference between right and wrong at the time of the shooting.

Tomita's assessment of Mason was that he does not qualify for the defence as his behaviour was disordered and not psychotic.

Both Crown attorney David McWhinnie and defence lawyer Gordon Coffin tried to clarify the difference between disordered and psychotic behaviour. However, no precise line could be drawn between the two.

Tomita would not rule out the possibility that Mason was displaying psychotic behaviour during the murder, but he did not have enough information to support that claim.

One piece of evidence that led him to say Mason was disordered was a 911 call the accused made after the shooting. He phoned the RCMP to tell them he had shot Gaulin, and asked for help.

This shows he had an awareness of what he'd done, Tomita said.

He also asked for police protection, a request that was not based on any real threat. This was again a sign to Tomita of disordered behaviour.

While the sequence of events is unclear, Gaulin's body was mutilated by cut and stab wounds after he was killed, court heard. Part of his ear was cut off and placed on his back.

It is not known whether these post-mortem wounds were inflicted before or after the call to police.

The mutilation is difficult to explain, according to Tomita. He said it could be interpreted as either disordered or psychotic.

The trial continued today with Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe of Vancouver, whose report did find Mason psychotic at the time of the shooting.

The case is being heard in Whitehorse by visiting Justice Rene Foisy alone, with no jury.