Forensic psychiatrist says Ontario man on trial for murder of parents was not suffering psychosis

A forensic psychiatrist who assessed Kyle Sequeira’s criminal responsibility for the second-degree murder of his parents Lynette and Francis Sequeira believes that Kyle’s motivation for killing his parents was reality-based and not psychotically driven.

Dr. Lisa Ramshaw disagreed with Dr. Derek Pallandi, a forensic psychiatrist for the defence who testified Tuesday that Kyle was suffering from a mental disorder at the time, namely schizophrenia, which rendered him incapable of understanding the wrongfulness of his actions.

It is an agreed-upon fact that the 29-year-old fatally assaulted his parents with a golf club in the Scarborough home where they all lived between Sept. 4 and 5, 2021. But Kyle has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder. Defence lawyer Marcus Bornfreund has argued his client is not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

Ramshaw testified that Kyle was angry, based on his own self-reporting, and just hours before the incident, consumed two airplane-size bottles of alcohol after smoking marijuana. She said the alcohol would have exacerbated his rage.

2:21 Trial of Scarborough man accused of killing his parents begins

According to the facts, just weeks before killing his parents, Kyle’s mother called the police after he got into an argument with a female friend at the family home. Kyle was arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer, among other things.

At the time, Kyle was living under house arrest with his parents as sureties after being charged with attempted murder after being accused of stabbing a friend 13 times in June 2019. The court heard that just two days after killing his parents, a preliminary hearing was set to begin on the attempted murder charge. His parents were expected to be called as witnesses for the Crown.

In her report, Ramshaw wrote, “When asked about the homicides, Mr. Sequeira explained that he was ‘just upset with his parents for calling police on me – so when I was angry, I woke them up from their sleep and beat them to death with a golf club stick.’ He had been increasingly angry since his release from jail.”

Ramshaw said she is unable to diagnose Kyle with schizophrenia, though he may have had it, and does not believe he was suffering from active psychosis at the time of the offence.

She also acknowledged that Kyle understood that hitting his parents with a golf club would result in their death and that his behaviour was wrong.

“There was no information to suggest he didn’t know it was wrong or wasn’t able to know it was wrong,” she told Justice Anne Molloy.

In his diagnosis, Pallandi referred to the fact that Kyle told him that at the time of the killing, a voice told him to “just do it.”

Ramshaw said she believed that may have simply been an “internal voice” rather than an auditory hallucination. She added there was no evidence to suggest that Kyle was suffering from delusions at the time.

Court has heard that since being taken into custody after being charged with the murders of his parents, Kyle is being treated with anti-psychotic medication after a psychiatrist in the Toronto East Detention Centre diagnosed him with schizophrenia.

Closing arguments will be heard on Thursday.