For the second time in a little over a year a murder has occurred at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital, a maximum security facility for the criminally insane located in Jessup Maryland.

Twenty four year old Vitaly Davydov from Montgomery County has been charged with murder in the beating death of his roommate 22 year old David Rico-Noyola from Anne Arundel County. Vitaly who suffers from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder had been at the facility ever since he fatally beat his psychiatrist in his Bethesda office in September of 2006.

In 2007 Vitally was found not criminally responsible for the killing because of severe mental illness and was ordered to the hospital until he was determined to no longer be a threat to anyone.

David had been at the hospital since August of 2008 after the Department of Mental Health and Hygiene labeled him incompetent to stand trial for the beating death of his mother 48 year old Ofelia Noyola – Monrroy. He had been scheduled for another competency hearing next month.

This story may have happened in America but it is still a stark reminder of the challenges faced when treating persons with severe cases of mental illness. Some may argue that treatment methods vary between facilities and the severity of the mental illness can differ greatly between individuals. Valid point in some cases maybe.

It would be interesting to have a dialogue with individuals dealing with the mental health community. Hearing their concerns, and comments in regards to areas that are lacking in the Canadian Mental Health establishment is a place to start.

The agreed statement of facts that was presented to the court. The Crown is not contesting any of the evidence:

-The Court heard Beaulieu’s family had been concerned about the Etienne deteriorating mental health for months.

-Beaulieu was seeing a psychiatrist and spent a few days in the hospital at the end of July, just days before he attacked his mother.

-On Aug. 4, 2010, Beaulieu was home alone with his mother at their Bissonnette St. home. Beaulieu hit his mother twice over the head with a baseball bat, then dragged her down a set of stairs. Etienne Beaulieu stabbed his mother in the neck and the stomach.

-The rest of Beaulieu’s family, his father and sister, returned to the house at 6 p.m. and discovered the horrific scene.

-Robitaille, a French immersion teacher at Prince of Wales Public School, died of her injuries at the Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

Local press has stated ”Beaulieu’s defense team has argued his mental illness was so severe he could not comprehend the repercussions of his act.”

The outcome of this hearing is a foregone conclusion. Decided long before the judge hands down the decision she is bound to deliver, Etienne Beaulieu will be found “not criminally responsible” in the killing his mother.

Dr. Gary Chaimowitz, a psychiatrist who examined Beaulieu in May, testified that Beaulieu was suffering from intense and aggravating delusions that day, and in his deteriorating mental state, Beaulieu believed another person was trapped inside the body he saw in front of him. Chaimowitz also testified Beaulieu had a “major psychiatric disorder”, but didn’t offer a formal diagnosis to the court. He testified Beaulieu could be suffering from schizophrenia. His symptoms included paranoid and bizarre delusions including the illusion that he was being persecuted.

The psychiatrist believed Beaulieu had suffered from these delusions for years before the attack. That Beaulieu was unable to distinguish right from wrong that day. “His disorder was so intense, so active, he could not appreciate the consequences of his actions,” Chaimowitz testified.

Chaimowitz testified that although Beaulieu’s state has improved since arrest, and he continues to improve each day, he does still pose a risk to the community. Chaimowitz then adds the risk could be managed with treatment, hospitalization and supervision.

As has been so often in the past, the only argument clearly heard in the Whitby courtroom is that a family struggling with the effects of mental illness sought help. And as so often is the case, it is only after disaster has struck, and life has been forever altered, that a psychiatric community offers a message of hope. “The risk can be managed with treatment” they say.

If that is true, then what types of intervention and care should have been implemented before August 4, 2010. Society needs to question why treatments were not successful. Isabelle Robitaille is dead. Her family torn apart. Etienne Beaulieu is not criminally responsible. The cost is immeasurable, and yet nobody pays.

And the crown sits quietly, patting themselves on the back for a job well done.

In 2004, North Battleford Queen’s Bench Justice Donald Krueger found Larose to be not criminally responsible for his actions because of a mental illness.According to evidence from a psychiatrist, Larose suffered from a chronic paranoid schizophrenic illness.

Doctors have determined that Larose no longer poses a threat and he has been slowly reintegrated back into society. Larose will have to report to a mental health worker and live in a group home.

The  Albertan teen killed her parents and younger brother when she was 12  but is a low risk for future violence and will be allowed to live in the community, a judge decided at her sentence review. The girl (JR) and her then-boyfriend Jeremy Steinke, who was 23,  murdered her parents and eight-year-old brother at the family’s Medicine Hat, Alta. home in 2006.

JR was found guilty of three counts of first degree murder. She was not declared “Not CriminallyResponsible” So why is she on Tim’s Law?

JR began her 10-year-sentence at a psychiatric hospital.

“The latest psychologist report shows the girl is cooperating fully with staff within the treatment program. The girl has displayed “exemplary behaviour. You are entering into a new phase in your program which is integration into the community. I’m sure it will not be particularly easy for you having been in a custodial setting,” Judge Brooker said Tuesday

At the end of the hearing J.R. spoke about her treatment. “I’m very grateful … it has really helped me to grow,” she said.

The Canadian judicial system like to protects killers. Killers like JR, Alan Schoenborn and Vincent Li. But who protects the public from killers like them?  Read more about “JR” here

In part the letter stated: “From testimony given over the last few weeks it is quite clear that Noyes was a threat to the community and a danger to children. Any layman can see that there was a clear history of violence and homicidal delusions, yet she was released back into the community over and over again. This woman knew she was ill”…. end quote

The woman found not criminally responsible in the murder of John Fulton will remain in a forensic psychiatric hospital for another year. Not because of the action of the local RCMP, the mental health workers, her psychiatrists, or her doctor. Rather through her counsel, Kimberly Noyes requested and consented to have her stay at the forensic psychiatric hospital in Port Coquitlam, B.C. extended and annual hearing postponed by another 12 months.

There were reports last year that Noyes was granted escorted leave from the hospital but the BC Review Board said that she has remained in detention at the hospital and has not had any escorted access to the community. As the Fulton letter stated “with a clear history of violence and homicidal delusions, she is released back into the community over and over again.

Kimberly Noyes knows she still ill and has delayed her own release.

The letter concluded This senseless crime was completely avoidable. Noyes’ actions were completely deplorable but mental health’s inactions are equally so.”Something don’t appear to change.

Ms. Lafleur, 63, readily admitted she killed Ms. Napper, 61, in the Celina Street home they shared, telling a Durham homicide detective she’d been justified in doing so. Ms. Lafleur, who is schizophrenic, believed the victim was murdering children, court heard.

Ms. Lafleur believes she is a member of the royal family who was given permission to commit the murder by U.S. President Barack Obama, court heard. Addressing the court Tuesday, Ms. Lafleur insisted she had been granted indemnity in the killing.

“I was found innocent,” Ms. Lafleur, sitting in a wheelchair and breathing with the aid of an oxygen pump, declared. “I should be found innocent again.”

Prosecutor John Pollard and defence lawyer John Olver both recommended Ms. Lafleur be found not criminally responsible for the murder, and that the Ontario Review Board, which reviews the status of those declared NCR, determine how best to manage her in the future.

“We concede on the balance of probabilities that Ms. Lafleur did not know that what she was doing was wrong,” said Mr. Pollard, adding Ms. Lafleur’s illness “predisposed her to the act.”

Dr. Karen De Freitas, a forensic psychiatrist at Ontario Shores, said Ms. Lafleur continues to present a threat to others. “She remains psychotic and she remains a danger to the public,” she said.

Ms. Lafleur was ordered held at the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby until the Ontario Review Board rules on a future course of treatment for her.

The 36-year-old, who can’t be named to protect the identities of her victims, appeared in court on several charges, including multiple counts of attempted murder. She admitted to attacking her four-month-old and nine-year-old sons and sister, 32, with a knife in an unprovoked rampage at her downtown apartment in June 2010.

“Everyone is going to die today,” the woman said after grabbing a large kitchen knife. She also kicked her four-month-old niece across the room before she was disarmed by her sister and held for police. Her two children suffered critical injuries from stab wounds to the stomach but recovered. Her sister suffered minor injuries to her chest; her niece was not injured.

Again as in prior cases, both the Crown and defence lawyers agreed with medical reports stating she couldn’t appreciate the nature of her actions based on hallucinations and paranoid delusions she was experiencing at the time.

Provincial court Judge Rocky Pollack agreed with the not criminally responsible diagnosis, so the woman will not go to jail nor receive a criminal record. She will now be under the care of a provincial review board while receiving medical treatment.

“We have no authority to punish an act that is committed by someone who is not able to form the criminal intent,” Pollack said. “We know now these bizarre and frightening acts took place while she was suffering a psychotic disorder.”

The woman, who came to Canada from Somalia, has no prior criminal record. Previously the Free Press quoted a source stating that she was grappling with post-partum depression and had been hospitalized in February 2010. She told police her husband had been using magic on her and expressed concerns about being poisoned and abducted. Her husband doesn’t live in Canada.

“She is known by family to otherwise be a very caring and loving parent,” Dr. Stanley Yaren wrote in a report presented to the court Thursday. He has been working closely with the woman since her arrest and said she has responded well to anti-psychotic medication. She is unable to recall many details of the attack, which ended with the woman calmly sitting on a couch and waiting for police to arrive. Dr. Stanley Yaren wrote the report on Vincent Li also.

The woman is now back in the community, living under the supervision of medical officials and the Elizabeth Fry Society. Child and Family Services now has custody of her children, court was told. She will continue to undergo treatment and will appear before the review board within three months to determine if she can remain an out-patient or should be brought into a secure facility such as Selkirk Mental Health Centre.

The question begs to be asked…. If she was reportedly hospitalized in February 2010, why was the treatment provided not adequate to avert this tragedy yet after a couple of sessions with Dr. Stanley Yaren she is fit to live in the community now?

Thankfully she is not allowed to have any contact with her children unless supervised visits are approved by CFS

Senator Boisvenu made the comments after the latest verdict came down in the trial of former Quebec doctor Guy Turcotte, who admitted to fatally stabbing and mutilating his two children. Turcotte said he suffered from anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts amid a crumbling marriage. The ex-cardiologist could be freed later this summer if the Criminal Review Board decides he’s not a danger to himself or society.

Federal justice department statistics show a startling increase in NCR verdicts of almost 50% in the past 20 years — a spike largely attributable to Quebec courts. “These are disturbing statistics,” said Boisvenu, who plans to raise the issue with Justice Minister Rob Nicholson.

“When someone admits to having committed a crime, there is a responsibility that comes with it.” Boisvenu said jurors in the Turcotte case were barraged with conflicting testimony from psychiatrists, which made their job extremely difficult. “Some countries have chosen to have psychiatric (evidence) provided by three experts who are independent of the Crown or the defence,” he said.

Statistics show that nearly half of all not-criminally-responsible verdicts between 1992 and 2004 came from Quebec courts even though the province has less than a quarter of the Canadian population.

Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, had 37% of such verdicts in the same time period, a finding that irks Boisvenu. He says Quebec courts are soft on defendants who plead mental distress.

“The gap between Quebec and other Canadian provinces should concern us,” he said. “It is a symptom of a society that trivializes the crime, thinks that punishment is wrong.”

While Senator Boisvenu statements do raise some interesting points that may have some merit of concerns, the statistics cited seem to imply that jurors are an underlying factor of the increase of “Not Criminally Responsible” verdicts and that is simply not the case.

Most of the cases of NCR in Canada are tried before judges only. A much more prevalent and disturbing trend is of Crown prosecutors failing to aggressively dispute defense assertions of mental impairment. In many of the cases noted on Tim’s Law, the judge was presented with an agreed set of facts by both the crown and defense, where the only witnesses were the psychiatrist who made assessments based on meeting the accused a few times. The judge is bound by judicial precedence to make a determination of guilt based only on the evidence presented so the verdict is inevitably NCR.

Senator Boisvenu joins the small but growing list of political leaders who are expressing an interest in raising the topic of NCR verdicts is most welcome and indeed needed. But there are many factors that need addressed that go way beyond simplistic solutions. Reviewing the handling of many of the cases that have resulted in NCR verdicts would be a good start. Offering solutions to funding issues that likely plague many of the smaller offices of crown prosecutors may be another. Certainly working to improve mental health treatment in Canada that may have alleviated some of the crimes in the first place is another.

Simple solutions will not solve the disturbing trend of increased NCR verdicts in Canada. Juries not being able to understand complex and conflicting testimony at a murder trial may cause concern but implying that it is responsible for the increase in NCR verdicts is stupid. And in a highly educated society like Canada… the public may indeed be gullible and trusting but we are not stupid.

In June 2006, Kamlesh Dhingra was found dead in her Richmond Hill, Ontario home. She was struck on her head with a statue and stabbed multiple times in the neck and body. While a court found that Ved Dhingra killed his wife Kamlesh Dhingra, it found him not criminally responsible for the murder because he suffered from schizoaffective disorder.

Note: There are numerous debates within the mental health field whether a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder even exists!

Because the court decided he wasn’t criminally responsible, Scotia Life Insurance Company said it would pay the $50,000 policy benefit to Dhingra, who was the sole beneficiary.

The Ontario Superior Court ruled that Dhingra, who was sent to the Whitby Mental Health Centre following his trial, isn’t entitled to the insurance benefits. “(Dhingra) committed second degree murder of his ex-wife Kamlesh. Even though he was not found criminally responsible, he still physically committed the crime,” Justice Andra Pollak wrote in her ruling.

“There is no judicial support in Canada for (Dhingra’s) submission,” she continued.

Her ruling sided with Dhingra’s son Paul, who had argued that the insurance benefits should go to his mother’s estate and not to his father. Lina Dhingra, Paul’s sister has said her father would appeal Pollak’s ruling.