Final arguments were heard Friday in the case of Kellie Johnson, the 37-year-old woman who pleaded not guilty to the first-degree murder of her five-year-old son in January 2014.
The defence must prove Johnson was not capable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act and that she did not find it was “morally wrong.”
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Defence lawyer Leslie Sullivan argues that because of Johnson’s severe mental health issues, the only reason she killed her son was to save him from a terrible fate. Acting morally under her schizophrenic circumstances.
“She believed that she was saving her son and that it was therefore the right thing to do. At the time she actually performed the act, she felt at that moment in time there was nothing else to do but what she did,” Sullivan explained.
According to testimony, a psychologist who met with Johnson said the accused believes her ex-boyfriend molested her youngest son. Weeks before the murder, Johnson’s female hallucination named “the woman” threatened to kill her, leading the accused to believe her son would be unprotected and molested repeatedly sending him to hell.
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But the Crown prosecutor said despite Johnson’s mental health issues, she made several rational decisions proving her moral guilt.
These include hiding the knife used to cut her son’s throat for two weeks prior to the murder, changing out of bloody clothes at St. Paul’s Hospital and saying “I’m sorry” to her oldest son who woke up on the top bunk bed after hearing his brother struggling on the floor.
“I think that a person’s actions before, during and after the act point to a certain rationality,” said Crown prosecutor Brian Hendrickson.
Kellie Johnson’s fate will be decided on Oct. 28 as the judge reserved his decision until then.