Vincent Li Review Hearing Set for June 1

Vince Li was found not criminally responsible last week for the brutal slaying of Tim McLean last summer near Portage la Prairie, Man,is to make his first appearance before a review board June 1.

Members of the Criminal Code Review Board are expected to send Li to a secure psychiatric facility. The board will review his case every year to decide whether Li must remain institutionalized or whether he is well enough to be released.

At the June 1 hearing, the group will review police reports, victim impact statements and psychiatric assessments, which say Li is a risk to himself and others.

Carol DeDelley, mother of Tim McLean, along with other concerned citizens are lobbying for Tim’s Law to ensure Li and other violent NCR killers are never deemed “cured” and allowed to become a threat to others.

Timslaw.ca Adds Language Translator

The purpose of Tim’s Law is to raise awareness of deficiency in our legal system, which has allowed killers like Vincent Li, the perpetrator of the horrendous murder of Tim McLean, to freely mingle with an unsuspecting public. We have added a language translator to timslaw.ca to further engage and foster a dialogue inclusive of the varying attitudes and opinions,

Proponents of Tim’s Law hope not only to raise awareness of the inadequacy in Canada’s “Not Criminally Responsible” policy, but to also effect meaningful change that will prevent the possibility of repeat offences by NCR perpetrators.

While this translator feature may not offer the perfect solution, our hope is that people may overlook the inherent limitations these translators provide, and see the greater good and awareness that timslaw.ca seeks to promote. Timslaw.ca is endeavouring to provide an inclusive forum crossing both the cultural and opinionated spectrum present in Canadian society.

Criminal or Insane

By CHINTA PUXLEY, THE CANADIAN PRESS

Her son was sleeping peacefully, listening to music on his earphones as the Greyhound bus drove across the Prairies last summer.

Minutes later, horrified passengers heard Tim McLean “scream bloody murder” as he was repeatedly stabbed and eventually decapitated.

Seven months later, McLean’s mother Carol deDelley is steeling herself to face the man charged with second-degree murder in her son’s brutal slaying as Vince Li goes on trial in Winnipeg tomorrow.

But she doesn’t expect closure from the proceedings, regardless of the outcome.

“There is no possible good outcome for me,” she said. “The trial to me seems like another thing we have to endure — a formality that we have to sit through.”

That’s because the sole issue at the three-day trial, being heard by a judge without a jury, will be whether Li is criminally responsible for his actions.

Li’s lawyers have said they are not disputing that he killed McLean. Experts anticipate his lawyers will argue he was in an automaton state brought on by a mental health disorder and should be institutionalized rather than imprisoned.

If this argument is successful, Li would not have a criminal record and could eventually be released if deemed healthy by a mental health review board. Unlike a conviction for murder, anyone found not criminally responsible is also not required to serve a minimum amount of time in detention.

But the victim’s mother says the prospect that the man charged in her son’s death might eventually be released is too much to bear. The law has to be changed so anyone found not criminally responsible for a crime still serves time in prison, she said.

“I don’t think mental illness ought to absolve you of your responsibilities for your behaviour,” Carol deDelley said yesterday. “Once the crime has been committed I still believe they need to be held responsible, otherwise what sort of a message are you sending?” (more…)

Family wasn’t shocked

It was a verdict Tim McLean’s family knew was coming, one they didn’t want to hear.

Before a packed courtroom yesterday morning, Justice John Scurfield ruled Vincent Li not be held criminally responsible for stabbing, dismembering and decapitating McLean aboard a Greyhound bus last summer.

The decision means Li will not be going to jail, but a mental institution.

“Persons who are profoundly ill do not have the mental capacity to intentionally commit a crime,” Scurfield said.

“The goal of criminal law is to punish criminals, not persons who have a mental illness.”

Scurfield ordered Li to remain in a secure psychiatric facility until a hearing can be scheduled before the Criminal Code review board. Li is expected to then be committed to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre for long-term treatment.

Once lodged at the centre, Li will be subject to annual reviews to consider his release.

“We didn’t go into this morning with any surprises expected and we didn’t get any,” McLean’s mother Carol deDelley told reporters outside court. “We will now have to go on a yearly basis, instead of having a birthday party, to ensure Mr. Li is kept locked up to keep everybody else safe.”

“Knowing that killer might get out very soon is very hard,” said McLean’s father Tim.

At a trial earlier this week, two forensic psychiatrists testified Li is a schizophrenic who believed he heard the voice of God directing him to kill McLean.

McLean’s family is calling on the federal government to pass a new law requiring mandatory life sentences for murder, regardless of the offender’s mental state.

“There is still a possibility of him being freed,” deDelley said. “Is the likelihood there? I’m not sure, but the possibility shouldn’t even be there. He still did it, whether he was in his right frame of mind or not. There was nobody else on that bus holding a knife slicing up my child.”

Li’s two-day trial heard testimony from just two witnesses — the forensic psychiatrists who examined him. Crown attorney Joyce Dalmyn said because Li admitted killing McLean, there was no reason to hear testimony from the nearly three dozen passengers who were on the bus with them.

Awaiting clarification

Dalmyn said the Crown’s office is still awaiting clarification from the RCMP as to whether an NCR finding means Li will have a criminal record.

“Certainly it is something that the RCMP do track and is information that would be available to them were there any further finding or charges in the future,” she said.

Judge rules not criminally responsible

A judge has ruled that Vincent Li is not criminally responsible for the murder and dismemberment of Tim McLean aboard a Greyhound bus.

Yet, in a strange development confirmed shortly after the ruling, a government official told media Li will have a criminal record, which is not typically the case for those found not criminally responsible (NCR).

That official has not yet explained why or how this will occur.

Earlier, the judge did offer insight as to why he chose the NCR ruling.

“Persons who are profoundly ill do not have the mental capacity to intentionally commit a crime,” said Justice John Scurfield.

“This case has attracted international attention because of the barbaric manner in which Mr. McLean was killed,” Scurfield said.

“These grotesque acts are appalling…but are strongly suggestive of a mental disorder.”

The ruling means Li will be held in custody at a mental institution, not jail.

Li will remain in secure custody at the psychiatric unit of Health Sciences Centre until a hearing can be scheduled before the mental health review board.

Vincent Li Found NOT Criminally Responsible

Vince Li has been found not criminally responsible in the unprovoked killing of fellow passenger Timothy McLean on a Greyhound bus last summer.

Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Judge John Scurfield said Thursday that Li, 40, could not be found guilty of murder and is not criminally responsible for the crime because he was mentally ill at the time of the killing.

“These grotesque acts are appalling… but are suggestive of a mental disorder,” the judge said.

“He did not appreciate the act he committed was wrong.”

Li had pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder. Psychiatric evidence at his trial suggested he is a schizophrenic who suffered a major psychotic episode last July 30 when he stabbed McLean, 22, to death.

For five hours after the killing Li wandered around on the bus, from which passengers had fled onto a lonely stretch of Manitoba highway, defiling the body while an RCMP tactical team waited to subdue him.

Rather than go to prison, Li will be kept in a secure psychiatric facility, most likely in Selkirk, Man.

He comes under the jurisdiction of Manitoba’s provincial review board, which will decide whether he poses a risk to the public. The review board has the power to keep Li locked up indefinitely or, if he is no longer considered a risk, discharge him.

McLean’s family had been lobbying for a change in the Criminal Code to prevent mentally ill killers from being released back into the community. His mother, Carol de Delley, has said that regardless of the verdict, she would do everything in her power to ensure Li is never released from secure custody.

Greyhound bus witnesses receive $450 after gruesome killing

Greyhound Canada has offered six counselling sessions and paid $450 compensation to a young Manitoba couple who were first-hand witnesses to a horrific killing on a passenger bus last summer.

Stephen Allison and his wife, Isabelle, were sitting opposite Vince Li and Tim McLean on Greyhound bus 1170 last July 30 when Li pulled a knife and killed young McLean.

“Seeing that is not something you get over very quickly,” Stephen Allison, 20, said Wednesday. “It’s made me a shell of my former self. I’m trying to get back to normal but it’s hard.”

He still recalls vividly the events of that night. (more…)

The judge said he will deliver his verdict at 10 a.m. CT on Thursday.

A two-day Winnipeg trial in a case of killing and beheading on a Greyhound bus ended Wednesday with both sides seeking the same verdict — not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder.

The judge said he will deliver his verdict at 10 a.m. CT on Thursday.

Psychiatrists for the Crown and the defence agreed during the short trial that Vince Li, 40, was suffering from schizophrenia and did not know what he was doing when he killed 22-year-old Timothy McLean of Winnipeg on a bus in Manitoba last July.

That verdict would mean he could be sent to a provincial psychiatric facility rather than to prison. He would be placed under the authority of a provincial review board with power to keep him in custody or, if he is no longer considered a risk, discharge him.

‘He has a major mental illness that …rendered him unable to know what he was doing was wrong’—Dr. Jonathan Rootenberg

Toronto psychiatrist Jonathan Rootenberg, testifying for the defence, told court Wednesday that Li suffers from schizophrenia and was probably psychotic for weeks before the attack.

Rootenberg said Li meets the criteria for an accused person who would be not criminally responsible. “He has a major mental illness that …rendered him unable to know what he was doing was wrong,” the psychiatrist said, suggesting Li knew he was stabbing someone but thought it was a demon and didn’t understand the nature of his actions.

Earlier, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Stanley Yaren, testifying for the Crown, also gave evidence that Li was diagnosed as schizophrenic and suffered from a major psychotic episode — tormented by auditory hallucinations — at the time of the killing.

Yaren testified that according to Li, God told him that McLean was a “force of evil” who was about to stab Li unless he protected himself.

McLean’s family has been lobbying for changes to the Criminal Code that would prevent a person found not criminally responsible for a crime from ever being released into the community.

Cold Facts of the Case

However, it is now public record and forms part of a very important aspect of this case. Reader discretion is strongly advised.

Vince Weiguang Li was born in Dandong China on 30 April, 1968. He graduated from the University of Wuhan Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Science (Computers) in 1992. Mr. Li immigrated to Canada in 2001, and became a citizen in 2005. He graduated from CDI College (Computer Programming) in 2002.

He was divorced from his wife Ana in 2006. During his time in Canada, he held a number of menial jobs including caretaking in a church, assistant manager at McDonalds, sales assistant in the parts department at Canadian Tire, and newspaper carrier. He was unable to obtain employment in his field, and had periods of unemployment, although at other times held two jobs at the same time.

Mr. Li had few friends, those he had describe him as having mental problems, but never knew him to be violent. (more…)

‘God’ told him to do it

“I believe he was tormented by auditory hallucinations and these took the form of God’s voice giving him instructions … and that he needed to protect himself from evil forces,” Yaren said.

Yaren said Li believed he had received a message from God telling him McLean “was a force of evil that was about to use a knife to execute him.”

Yaren said after killing McLean, Li feared he could come back to life.

Li dismembered McLean’s body and spread the body parts about the bus “to ensure (McLean) did not come back to life to carry out the execution,” Yaren said. “Having killed him, he was still terrified that through supernatural powers he was capable of coming back to life.”

Yaren said Li has admitted most of the allegations against him but “steadfastly denies” eating any parts of McLean’s body.

“I can only surmise that he blocked it from his consciousness … that it is too awful for him to contemplate.” (more…)