Man pleads guilty to 2nd-degree murder after intentionally pushing stranger in front of Toronto subway

Sitting in an orange jumpsuit in a small video room at the Toronto South Detention Centre where he has been incarcerated since his arrest, 55-year-old John Reszetnik admitted that he intentionally pushed a complete stranger in front of a subway train on June 18, 2018, causing the stranger to die.

Reszetnik who has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in relation to the crime that shocked Torontonians, faces a sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for between 10 and 25 years.

Justice John McMahon told Reszetnik during his virtual court appearance Monday that it is more realistic that he will be sentenced to a period of parole ineligibility between 10 and 18 years.

“It will be a long time somewhere in that range before you can apply for parole,” McMahon cautioned Reszetnik who listened quietly.

The guilty plea comes one week before Reszetnik’s trial was set to begin.

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According to the facts read out in court, Reszetnik entered the westbound/eastbound platform on the Bloor/Yonge subway station at 10:07 a.m. that day and after being on the platform for about five minutes, focused his attention toward 73-year-old Yosuke Hayahara.

“At approximately 10:14 a.m., Mr. Reszetnik forcefully pushed Mr. Hayahara in front of the subway as it travelled into the station at approximately 50 kilometres an hour.  Mr. Hayahara was pulled under the subway and trapped between the wall and track; he died later that day of blunt impact chest trauma,” said Crown attorney Sean Doyle.

“Mr. Reszetnik meant either to cause his death or to cause him bodily harm that he knew was likely to cause his death and was reckless whether death ensued or not.”

Sources told Global News a theory investigators were looking at as to why Reszetnik pushed Hayahara in front of the subway is because he thought it was his landlord, who was in the process of trying to evict him.

More facts are expected to be agreed upon at the sentencing hearing for Reszetnik later this month, at which time victim impact statements will also be read out.

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