Crown wants harsher parole conditions for Kitchener killer

KITCHENER — The troubled young man who stabbed an elderly man to death as he delivered Christmas cards should not be eligible for parole for at least 15 years, a Crown attorney argued at a court hearing on Tuesday morning.

Trevor LaPierre, 24, on Tuesday pleaded guilty to second degree murder in the 2007 attack on Hunter Brown, a devoted husband and 74-year-old retiree who played Santa Claus for his grandchildren. He will automatically receive a life sentence.

Court heard that LaPierre had a history of mental illness stretching back to his college years, when he tried to sever one of his own fingers with a meat cleaver. His lawyer, Brennan Smart, argued there is no reason to raise parole ineligibilty for LaPierre beyond the minimum 10 years.

But Crown attorney Karey Katzsch argued on Tuesday that LaPierre deserves a longer period of parole ineligibility because of his attempts to manipulate the justice system and his doctors through repeated lies, exaggeration and feigning of his symptoms. Ms. Katzch noted that 11 doctors who have assessed LaPierre since 2004, both before and after the murder, have not been able to agree on a consistent and clear diagnosis.

"There is very little these experts can agree on, and the reason for that is Mr. LaPierre," she told the court this morning.

After his arrest, LaPierre told an undercover officer in jail that he planned to use the insanity defence and expected to serve seven to 12 years, according to an agreed statement of facts. He admitted killing Mr. Brown after police told him they were searching the apartment he shared with his father for evidence. They found a seven-inch hunting knife in his bedside table.

An autopsy showed Mr. Brown had been stabbed 45 times on the head and face. The blows were so forceful that the knife entered his brain. He died in a pool of his own blood on his next door neighbour’s driveway, with Christmas card strewn around him.

A blindfold covered most of his face during his funeral because the damage was so severe.

The judge could issue his ruling as early as on Tuesday.