Vancouver man who shot girlfriend argues he is not criminally responsible due to mental disorder
Credit to Author: Keith Fraser| Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2020 14:02:33 +0000
A Vancouver man who was convicted of shooting his girlfriend in the face is claiming that he is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Michael Brundrett found the accused, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban, guilty of attempted murder in connection with the shooting incident on Nov. 8, 2017 at his girlfriend’s residence.
The Crown’s theory was that the accused shot his girlfriend in a fit of built-up jealous rage. At the time of the shooting, their 16-month-old daughter was in a crib beside her mother’s bed.
Court heard that the pair had been in a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship and the ministry of children and family development had become involved.
During an incident in the summer of 2016, the mother said the accused came home from work one day complaining that his dinner wasn’t ready and calling her names.
She said she told him not to smoke his fentanyl in the house around the baby and the argument escalated to the point where she picked up a bat or a wrench and hit the accused with what she described as a light tap on the back.
Social workers put in place several “safety plans” to mitigate concerns about the accused coming and going from the residence without permission, and in October 2017 the ministry received an interim supervision order from a Provincial Court judge.
At trial, the mother testified that she was in asleep in bed when she woke up suddenly to what she said was the accused’s presence in her bedroom doorway.
A few seconds later, the intruder extended his arm, which was covered in a white plastic grocery bag, and shot her in the face.
She fell back into bed and reached for her phone and called 911. During a second 911 call, she is heard gasping and crying and only after several minutes is she able to say, “‘Kay, you guys gotta hurry up. I just got shot.”
When police arrived, they found the mother on her bed with a cloth to her face and a blood-soaked T-shirt, moaning and gurgling with her daughter crying in the crib.
The accused had fled the scene without helping her and was later arrested at his home.
The victim’s injuries were life-threatening, but she survived.
She identified her boyfriend as the shooter, but due to a number of factors, including that she could not recall if she saw his face and only saw him for a few seconds in a largely dark room without her glasses, the judge said he gave little weight to her identification of the shooter.
In his verdict, the judge cited the circumstantial evidence, including the fact that the accused was one of only three people with keys to the victim’s suite, and the nature of the relationship.
“I find that their relationship was marked by high emotions, impulsivity, jealousy on the accused’s part, and intermittent fighting,” said the judge, who delivered the verdict orally Jan. 10 with the written ruling posted on the court’s website Monday.
“I have no doubt that the arrival of a young baby into the parties’ lives in August of 2016, and the intervention of the (ministry), increased the stress and tension of both parties, and focused the accused’s attention upon his role as a father.”
At the time of the shooting, the accused was feeling a loss of control over his relationship and access to his daughter and blamed his girlfriend, said the judge.
Following the verdict, Tony Lagemaat, the accused’s lawyer, told the judge that he was pursuing an application to have his client declared not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. A hearing for the application is set for June 22.