The double murder trial for Kyle Sequeira, who has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder but was found not criminally responsible because he was suffering from a mental disorder, continued Friday.
It is an admitted fact that sometime between Sept. 4 and 5, 2021, the 26-year-old killed his parents with a golf club inside the Scarborough home where the family lived.
On Friday, court heard from a forensic psychiatrist for the defence about Sequeira’s criminal responsibility for an aggravated assault that he has now admitted to carrying out more than two years before killing his parents, Lynette and Francis Sequeira.
According to an agreed statement of facts filed in court Friday regarding the aggravated assault, in the early morning hours of June 9, 2019, Sequeira and Christofher Smith were at the Stone Cottage Pub on Kingston Road. The two men, who had been friends for years, consumed approximately five pitchers of beer between them.
As they were walking back to Smith’s home after leaving the pub, Sequeira was complaining that the bar’s security guard was racist. Smith told Sequeira that he needed to “chill” and that he should take it easy. Sequeira was walking behind Smith when “Sequeira unexpectedly attacked him with a knife”.
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Smith was stabbed 13 times with a knife on the neck, the top of his head, chest, bicep, abdomen, back, buttock and legs. Six of the knife wounds were to the torso.
Smith fought back and was able to get control of Sequeira and the knife, which he threw on the ground before Sequeira ran away. The facts state that Sequeira did not say anything before or during the attack. Neighbours called 911 at 3:39 a.m. to report a stabbing and Sequeira ran back to the Pin Lane home where he lived with his parents.
Sequeira was arrested at 5:08 a.m. at Scarborough General Hospital where he was being treated for a cut to his right hand sustained during the attack on Smith. His mother, Lynette Sequeira, attended the hospital with him.
The facts state that on June 24, 2019, Sequeira was released on a strict house arrest bail after a contested hearing. His parents were named as sureties, each pledging $10,000. His release order prohibited him from possessing any weapons. Sequeira remained on this release order for two years without any incident.
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Derek Pallandi told Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy Friday that while Sequeira was intoxicated, to turn around and stab someone 13 times seemed excessive. “This degree of violence begs the question whether there is some other underlying factor that might help explain the conduct.”
Pallandi concluded at the time of the aggravated assault, Sequeira was suffering from substance use disorder and schizophrenia. The psychiatrist said there are suggestions that paranoia may have been operative, given he was not receiving treatment at that time of the aggravated assault. “That would have robbed him of knowing the wrongfulness of his conduct,” Pallandi said.
Court heard Sequeira was untreated for his mental illness until after he was arrested for murder.
Pallandi, who also assessed Sequeira’s criminal responsibility for the homicides, told court that Sequeira’s actions were more clearly linked to auditory command hallucinations when he killed his parents.
A forensic psychiatrist for the Crown, Dr. Lisa Ramshaw is also expected to testify about whether she believes Sequeira was criminally responsible for the aggravated assault.
When the murder trial started in June, Ramshaw testified about Sequeira’s criminal responsibility at the time of the murders. She testified that while concerned that Sequeira had schizophrenia, she said he no active signs of psychosis at the time of the index offence. Ramshaw concluded there was no information to suggest Sequeira did not know it was wrong.
The trial continues on Oct. 25th.
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