NEW WESTMINSTER, B.C. – A Crown attorney says evidence has been established beyond a reasonable doubt showing a man had the mental capacity to know that repeatedly stabbing a girl inside a British Columbia high school could result in her death.
Rob Macgowan says Gabriel Klein stabbed Letisha Reimer 14 times when he walked into Abbotsford Secondary School on Nov. 1, 2016, after first stabbing her friend as the girls sat on chairs in the rotunda.
Globalnews.ca coverage of the Gabriel Klein trial
The trial had earlier heard that Klein’s defence would be that he is not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder but Macgowan says that is no longer the case.
Klein has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the death of the 13-year-old girl and aggravated assault in the wounding of her friend whose name is protected by a publication ban.
Macgowan told B.C. Supreme Court in closing arguments that both the Crown and the defence have agreed the only verdicts are either guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter.
He says a partial of defence of intoxication “lacks an air of reality” and that alcohol Klein may have consumed before the attack was not enough for him to be unaware of the natural consequences of his actions.