A West Vancouver man charged with second degree murder took the witness stand in his own defence on Wednesday.

Sasan Ansari's eyes filled with tears on two occasions in an overfilled courtroom at the Vancouver Law Courts as he described his early childhood. He and lawyer Richard Peck went over his formative years in painstaking detail touching on his time in Iran, Germany and later in West Vancouver.

In his opening statement Peck said the defence, which is expected to last two weeks, will outline the relationship between Ansari and Joshua Goos who was found dead near Hollyburn Country Club in May 2006.

"The key focus is going to be Mr. Ansari's state of mind at the time," said lawyer Richard Peck. "One of the key questions is why would Sasan Ansari cause the death of someone with whom he had been friends for many years?"

Although the Crown claimed that Goos and Ansari had argued over a $90,000 loan, Peck said Ansari could have repaid the money but Goos started demanding $250,000.

"As time elapsed Mr. Goos became increasingly persistent on this issue," said Peck.

Peck later alleged that Goos persuaded criminals to work on his behalf and possibly even try to kidnap Ansari. He said Goos threatened Ansari when they met at Hollyburn Country Club the night Goos was found dead.

Witnesses over the next two weeks will testify to Ansari's character and trustworthiness, said Peck. While expert witnesses will talk about Ansari's state of mind at the time.

In the morning session the defence focused on Ansari's years as a standout academic student at Sentinel secondary. In addition to high marks and his athletic endeavours, he also tutored ESL students and organized school events.

"I'm sorry, I've done so much over the years it's hard to keep track," he said when asked to list his high school involvement.

Ansari later stopped to wipe away tears as he talked about how his parents convinced him to stay home and study at UBC instead of McGill after high school.

The trial was delayed for about 45 minutes Wednesday morning over news that a juror had contracted a contagious rash and could not continue with the trial.

The juror, who had been separated from the rest of the jury, was later dismissed after consultation between the lawyers and Justice Mark McEwan.

McEwan declined to name the disease to avoid embarrassing the juror.

-sneufeld@northshoreoutlook.com