Earlier in this case Crown prosecutor Christine Lowe had told the court a psychiatric assessment found Conte fit to stand trial, although “marginally fit.”  Lowe then agreed with defense attorney Bill Heflin that a second psychiatric assessment is needed to determine if Conte would be fit to stand trial for murder

Conte’s lawyer says the family is relieved with today’s decision. Bill Heflin says the system failed his client, and his mother’s death was preventable.

CTV News reported last year that despite Sarah Nickerson neighbors calling the case “a tragedy”, it was one they knew was coming for some time. The neighbors said police visited the home many times over the years – the last occasion was the Thanksgiving prior to the killing.

The Goldstream News Gazette reporting on the murder last year stated:

Conte had a troubled past before being arrested for his mother’s alleged murder. Last year he was found guilty on three counts of assault. He is currently charged with assault, uttering threats and break and enter from an incident on May 20, 2011.

The B.C. Review Board will determine how long he will remain at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital.

Steven Heer, 28, had been charged with second-degree murder in the Aug. 18, 2011, death of 59-year-old Mohan Heer, however a judge has ruled that he was not guilty as a result of his suffering from a major mental disorder. Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Michelle Crighton also accepted that Steven Heer had believed he was doing what he thought was right by “displacing the demons that had taken over his father and members of his family.”

Psychiatrist Vijay Singh testified Heer has been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and said, at the time of the killing, he was suffering hallucinations, hearing voices in his head and believed his life was in jeopardy. “He believed he had instructions from God,” said Singh, adding that Heer had earlier heard the voice of God telling him of a war between a good god and a bad god. “He had a strong belief that his father was possessed and believed he had to do something to cast out the devil that had possessed his father,” said Singh.

In a second report, psychiatrist William Friend said Heer also believed that the demon possessing his father was going to torture and kill him and take his soul. As well, Heer said the devil had appeared in the SUV he was operating and took control of the vehicle.

According to agreed facts, Heer had been arguing with his father when they returned to their Riverbend home after a short drive about 9 p.m. on Aug. 18, 2011. As the dad exited to open the garage door, his son accelerated and struck him with the Nissan Pathfinder. Then, as the victim made his way to the front of the home, his son drove into him again, pinning him to the stairs.

The victim’s wife and two daughters ran outside to intervene and, as the wife was holding her husband, Heer reversed and then accelerated forward and struck his father again. He then ran out and began kicking and stomping his father in the head while shouting. As family and friends began giving medical assistance, Heer went inside and changed and then drove off. He was found later near the High Level Bridge and arrested. The cause of death was multiple blunt traumas.

After ruling Heer was not criminally responsible, Crighton remanded him into custody at Alberta Hospital and ordered that he appear before the Alberta Review Board for a disposition hearing within the next 45 days.

Defence lawyer Brian Hurley said the family of Heer – a respected home builder who was well-liked among the city’s large Sikh community – is upset that their earlier cries for psychiatric help were unanswered.
“The family saw the deterioration in his mental health and tried to get him help and the system couldn’t get it for him,” said Hurley. “And, obviously, a horrendously tragic result occurred.”

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/09/07/man-not-criminally-responsible-in-driving-over-father-and-killing-him-court-rules

Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer has declared Balkaran, now 22, not criminally responsible for the gruesome murder because she suffers from schizophrenia, depriving her of the ability to appreciate the nature of her actions.

Her lawyer, Andrew Vaughan, entered her plea of not guilty to second-degree murder, reduced from first. A collision of factors led to the grisly killing, said Vaughan. Crown Attorney Paul Amenta, citing a psychiatrist’s report, catalogued Balkaran’s lengthy mental health history, extended hospitalization and troubled relationships with her mother and boyfriend, which often resulted in run-ins with police.

Balkaran had previously threatened to kill other family members, who were so concerned they removed knives from her mother’s apartment. Her mother called 911 after Balkaran suggested she was “on a mission from God and her family has to die.”

Balkaran endured a “nightmarish” childhood in Trinidad after her father died and her mother moved to Canada. She was kidnapped and physically and sexually abused before she was reunited with her mother at age 9. Poor and isolated, Zaniffa struggled to deal with the deeply troubled teenager — she was paranoid, heard voices and was suicidal — and the two frequently clashed. In her later teens, as her mental health deteriorated, she frequently moved back and forth between her mother’s and boyfriend’s residences, and shelters.

In September 2010, Balkaran, then pregnant, was taken to emergency at the Rouge Valley Health Centre after she was found screaming in the street. But, as she did on other occasions when hospitalized, she played down mental health issues and was released.

Three days later, she was admitted to hospital involuntarily, under the Mental Health Act, after a series of bizarre episodes. She was transferred to a shelter, where she stopped taking anti-psychotic medication fearing it would harm her unborn child.On Christmas Day 2010, Balkaran delivered a baby girl at Scarborough General Hospital and the infant was immediately apprehended by Children’s Aid Society.

Balkaran was discharged three days later but there was no follow-up counselling or support after a prolonged period of not receiving the medication she “desperately” required, Amenta told court. “The system may have fallen through,” agreed Vaughan.

A hearing will be held to determine where Balkaran will be held pending an assessment by the Ontario Review Board.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/1251854–schizophrenic-declared-not-criminally-responsible-in-mother-s-murder

In her ruling on Friday, B.C. Supreme Court Madam Justice Deborah Kloegman found that at the time of the offence, Ramsay suffered from a mental disorder that rendered him incapable of knowing that his actions were wrong. Justice Kloegman stated Ramsay was clearly in a delusional state at the time of the attack. She said the accused was not taking his medications or at least not in the required dosages just prior to the slaying.

His parents decided to reduce the dosages and replace the medication with power vitamins and he suffered acute anxiety from moving to North Vancouver from Nanaimo, said the judge. At the time of the offence, Ramsay’s state of mind was “irrational, illogical, delusional, disorganized, disoriented, incoherent, trancelike and confused,” she said. The severity of his condition proved that it was more likely than not that his mind was so disordered that he couldn’t tell right from wrong, she concluded.

Ramsay used a hammer or a wrench to strike his father multiple times in the head. The dad was pronounced dead at the scene. His mother was also struck in the head and suffered serious injuries. She was later discharged from hospital and has returned to Saskatchewan.

During the trial Jordan Ramsay’s psychiatrist, Dr. Leanne Meldrum, testified Ramsay is fragile, in deteriorating mental health and will need long-term care in Coquitlam’s Forensic Psychiatric Institute, where he currently is a patient, before he would ever be considered safe in the community. Ramsay will be evaluated by the B.C. Review Board, which has 45 days to decide if he should be remanded in custody to a psychiatric facility, conditionally discharged or discharged outright.

LeeAnn Ramsay, the sister of Donald Ramsay, said the judge had reached the correct verdict.

During the trial this week in Vancouver, the court heard evidence that at the time of the slaying, Ramsay was off his prescribed medication and was trying to treat himself with a brand of multivitamins which is marketed on the internet to people with mental illness. LeeAnn Ramsay says the death of her brother was preventable and could have been avoided had the accused not used the vitamins produced by Truehope. LeeAnn Ramsay says the vitamins were improperly marketed as a cure for mental illness and called on Health Canada to take action. “It makes me extremely sad and a little bit angry. I just want someone to be accountable for this. It had been a “very difficult” time for our family. My parents are devastated” she says.

Bradford Stephan, the chief operating officer for Truehope, acknowledged that Ramsay was taking their vitamins but denied that they played a role in the slaying. “We’ve had over 80,000 people in North America on this program and we’ve never had a problem before.” He blamed a visit the accused made to a North Vancouver psychiatrist a few days before the slaying, saying the psychiatrist had “ripped a strip off him” for use of the vitamins. He said that Ramsay left the psychiatrist feeling “very upset” and “very paranoid.”

Health Canada said it licences the company to use several nutritional supplements but does not allow them to claim them as a cure for schizophrenia or bipolar disorder.

Source: http://www.canada.com/technology/Judge+rules+schizophrenic+criminally+responsible+beating+death/6895923/story.html

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/07/06/bc-jordan-ramsay-ruling.html

MacKenna’s story, told through the eyes of Blake’s sister Erica Salemink begins at the Royal Columbian Hospital in 2004. Erica shares how suspicions about her brother are confirmed. As Blake sat in a seclusion room, watched by a security guard, she was told her younger sibling was suffering from a mental disorder and needed to be kept under observation for several days. In those early days Erica had no fear of her brother and described him as a sweetheart that would draw pictures of the sister he looked up to.

In those earlier times Erica watched as the quiet youth who had a “go-with-the-flow” attitude became increasingly agitated. The hope that its was just a faze or a kid acting out was slowly replaced by the reality that her brother was mentally ill.

After that initial stay at at Riverview Hospital (there would be many) things appeared to be OK for a time. Despite his troubles, Blake managed to finish high school and, in 2005, attended Malaspina College (Vancouver Island University).

In 2007, Erica received a call from a family Blake was staying with in Mexico City. She learned that her brother had smashed a car and had been acting erratically. Erica boarded a plane but upon her arrival was unable to convince her brother to come home. Erica recounts to MacKenna her shock as Blake hit her for the first time.

Blake was eventually taken to a hospital in Mexico, where he was treated for psychosis, and escorted back to Canada by authorities. In the years that followed, Blake had several stays at Riverview Hospital, spending anywhere from a month to two months at the facility.  “They don’t keep you until you are well,” Erica says. “They keep you until they think you have the medication sorted out… They take you to a certain level and that is when they let you out.”

Erica describes Blake when he was diligently taking his medication, how the sweetness would return. She also recounts the change when he wasn’t,  how he became mean, and often lash out at his family.

By the spring of 2010, fights between Blake and his mom became common, and Coquitlam RCMP officers were routinely called to Colette’s Burian Drive home to intervene in disputes. On April 13 of that year, a mental health warrant was drawn up that could have put Blake, who was still on extended stay from Riverview, back in the hospital. But when he met with his caseworker two days later, the warrant was not executed, despite the fact he appeared giddy and admitted to having auditory hallucinations. He said he heard a song that sounded like it was speaking to him, the court would later be told, but he knew the voices were not real. After the meeting, Blake was allowed to return home.

On April 17, police were again called after Blake threatened to hire a hitman from Mexico to kill his mother. When officers arrived, Colette told them she did not believe the threat was serious and Blake was not taken into custody. Erica shares how in the final days both she and her mother Colette were hopeful that despite the recent events, solutions could be found.

In the early morning hours of April 19, Blake is believed to have started fire in the house he shared with his mother. He quickly left, heading for Mexico.  Colette died.

Erica goes into great detail with McKenna about Blake reaction to hearing their mother had died in a fire. His arrest and subsequent return to Canada. She also shares her conflicting emotions. Despite her anger at his reaction and indifference, Erica says that she has more of a big-sister, parental kind of love. “ The unconditional part of it is pretty amazing.”

When the trial started, the judge ordered Blake be moved to the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital at Colony Farm in Coquitlam, where he will likely stay following the court verdict.

Erica asks many questions and has few answers about what led her brother to burn down their home and what wasn’t done that could have stopped him.

- The mental health warrant that was drawn up the week of the fire yet was not executed.
- Despite a death threat, police did not take Blake into custody.
- Why her mother’s request for supportive housing was ignored, forcing Blake back into her care when the family believed he should have been in a hospital setting.

In my opinion, Gary McKenna has done an exceptional job with this story. His portrayal of Blake Salemink as both a perpetrator, and a victim is well balanced. The emotional journey of a family dealing with mental illness is realistic and heart wrenching. Even when dealing with the obvious failures of the system to intervene, McKenna seems to have provided a sense of the futility that must be felt by mental health providers.

“I think back at what could have been done differently and I still don’t have the answer,” Erica said. “I just don’t know”.

Read  A sweet boy’s spiral, a mother’s life lost

Report from The Cape Breton Post 

The release of a 26-year-old New Waterford man now rests with a provincial review board after he was found not criminally responsible Friday for multiple offences.  William Joseph Tait will be returned to the East Coast Forensic Hospital and the board must meet within the next 45 days to make an initial assessment of Tait’s mental health.  After Friday’s sentencing hearing, Tait was remanded to the Cape Breton Correctional Centre for the weekend before his return to the Dartmouth hospital Monday.

Tait was first sentenced on charges of causing a disturbance and assaulting a police officer after his arrest last year at a doughnut shop. He received a sentence of one day in jail served by his presence in court. Prosecutor Diane McGrath explained to the court the strange circumstances involving the final two set of charges from incidents in May and November 2011.

The first set of charges, involving assault and threats and assault with a weapon, stem from a heated argument Tait was having with his girlfriend. In hearing the commotion, the landlord intervened and told Tait to leave the area. Tait instead fled inside the home but came running back out with a knife in his hand threatening to kill his landlord who was able to overpower Tait and hold him until police arrived.

McGrath said at the time of the offence, Tait was not taking his medication. He was diagnosed as having bipolar disorder.
In November, 2011, Tait made contact with a friend requesting he be allowed to stay for a few days, McGrath said. The request was granted as the friend was concerned because Tait was highly agitated and described as running around like a chicken with its head cut off.

The friend showed Tait a pellet gun and the two talked briefly about the gun before the friend went to bed. At around 3 a.m., Tait left the home with the gun and, for some unexplained reason, wearing a pair of women’s white shoes accented with numerous red rhinestones. Witnesses described the shoes as not fitting Tait very well.

McGrath said he first stopped at a convenience store on Prince Street where staff noticed the gun when he bent over. Tait didn’t stay long in the store and staff said he was rambling. Tait then ventured to a nearby gas bar and told the duty clerk he would kill them if they didn’t put money, cigarettes and scratch lottery tickets in a bag. The clerk complied and Tait left returning to his friend’s home to show off his ill-gotten booty.

McGrath said video surveillance from both locations clearly show Tait as the culprit. As result of the two incidents, Tait was charged with weapons offences and armed robbery.

Defence lawyer Ann Marie MacInnes said her client has little memory of the crimes but does accept responsibility for his actions.
In passing sentence, Judge Peter Ross said the evidence was clear that Tait was incapable at the time of appreciating or understanding the nature and consequence of his actions.

end

Would anyone be criminally responsible had Tait actions ended in the death of someone? 

A psychiatric evaluation found that Brennan thought his life was a reality tv show, similar to the plot in the Jim Carrey movie The Truman Show, and that the tv told him in order to get to Hollywood, he had to kill David Bowie as personified by Bougie.  Sean Brennan also thought celebrities such as rap artist Eminem were talking to him directly and that when police arrived the day of the stabbing, he thought the officer was director Quentin Tarantino.

Brennan’s lawyer James Dawson has stated that Brennan had behavioural problems since he was young and was followed by a psychiatrist starting in his teens when he was also consuming drugs and alcohol. At the time of the stabbing, Brennan was not on any meds, was no longer going to his treatments at the Douglas Hospital and was under the influence of drugs and alcohol every day.

Sean Brennan was previously convicted of illegal possession of a firearm, obstructing a police officer, resisting arrest, uttering death threats, and breaking bail conditions on several occasions. He’s never received any jail time, only suspended sentences and probation.

Brennan is now detained and treated at the Pinel Psychiatric Institute.

http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/entry.aspx?BlogEntryID=10349635

http://montreal.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20110127/mtl_murder_110127/20110127/?hub=MontrealHome

A second proposal that was made involves Li being permitted to take 30-minute excursions away from the hospital within Selkirk, provided he is accompanied at all times by a peace officer and a nurse. His doctors say those passes can be extended by up to 15 minutes per week, provided there are no incidents and he continues to make great strides.

Within the request to the Board, there is no indication that the community would be made aware of Li’s presence in their neighborhood. In fact, his doctors suggested the accompanying peace officers should be allowed to wear plain clothes to avoid drawing extra attention to Li.

Carol de Delley, Tim McLean’s mother, disagrees. She believes that Li is “a very unpredictably dangerous person.” Carol has given numerous media interviews in an attempt to heighten the awareness of the issues surrounding Vincent Li. While she is not concerned about security and surveillance while Li is in the care of the hospital, De Delley does question his activities outside of confinement. “What happens when he’s not in care anymore?”

The answer to this question has not been forthcoming. At the Hearing, the Crown did not raise any opposition to the proposals. Why would she? Li was described as having a “low risk of reoffending” and described as a “nice gentle guy”. Ironically, however, Li sat quietly through the Hearing in leg irons. On face value, it would appear that the members of the board only trust him in the Selkirk neighborhood.

Unfortunately, it is expected that Vincent Li will be given more freedom in the days to come. The Board is expected to render their decision shortly.

Signing the petition for Tim’s Law is showing support for a dialogue that weighs the rights of all sides of this discussion.

Sajid, who never testified in the case, was remanded into custody and will appear before a review board in the coming months.
“To a large extent the indicia of knowledge of moral wrong come from after-the-fact comments he made,” said the judge. “These do not contradict that there was an explosion in his mind that occurred at the time of the killing. They are of less significance in the assessment of knowledge of wrong than the overall reality that he was clearly suffering from a major mental illness. The act was entirely unmotivated and out of character, his victim was part of his persecutory delusion, and his illness in all likelihood prevented him from knowing that his actions were morally wrong.”

Sajid, a tenant living in the basement of the victim’s Warwickshire Way home, attacked and killed Siddiqi, 45, a married father of three, back on June 10, 2009, while he was repairing a window because Sajid didn’t like the way he looked at him. Court heard that Sajid, 25, delivered two stab wounds that killed Siddiqi.

The judge admitted she was struggling with certain aspects of the case, as there’s evidence in Sajid’s police interrogation interview, introduced as evidence by the Crown, that the accused knew what he was doing was “morally wrong. The fact that Sajid took and hid a knife on his person before the attack demonstrated some level of pre-planning that diminishes the strength of the argument that he did not have the capacity at the time of the event to know that it was morally wrong.

“It can never be known with precision what was in a person’s mind at the precise time of the offence. He is clearly a danger to society either way,” Justice Wein said.

Dr. Julian Gojer’s and Dr. Philip Klassen provided the expert testimony.

Facts of case originally reported by Mississauga.com

The patient (Andre Denny) was subsequently charged in a homicide (of Raymond Taavel). The joint review will be led by the deputy ministers of Health and Wellness and Justice and the CEO of CDHA.

The review will determine whether all relevant policies and procedures were followed and whether they were adequate. Denny was a patient at the hospital since January after being found not criminally responsible for an assault charge. He left the hospital on a one-hour leave at 7:30 p.m. on Monday night and didn’t return.

Aileen Brunet, clinical director of the East Coast Forensic Hospital, has been quoted as stating  that the unit has a 60-bed capacity and is currently three-quarters full. “And the vast majority of those individuals have some access to the community every day varying between an hour or two and back, all the way up to spending several days and nights out of the hospital.”

“Our decision-making process involves consideration of the person’s risk, their mental state, their compliance with the team and behaviour in hospital,” she said. Usually at first patients are escorted out on passes.

“It’s an opportunity for them to get some fresh air, and be able to go off hospital grounds to have a cigarette.” Occasionally some are late but it’s rare they don’t show up at all, Brunet said. If they do, they’re generally back within 24 hours, she said.

Brunet said it appears policy was followed in this case.

A progress update will be provided in 30 days. More on the history that prompted the review can be found here
Media Contacts: Sherri Aikenhead:  Health and Wellness, 902-424-7942,E-mail: Sherri.Aikenhead@gov.ns.ca

Tara Walsh   Department of Justice 902-424-6282 E-mail: walsht@gov.ns.ca
John Gillis Capital District Health Authority Pager: 902-458-5376  E-mail:johnw.gillis@cdha.nshealth.ca

On CBC Radio, Dr. Scott Theriault, clinical director, Department of Psychiatry for Capital Health answers questions about un-escorted leave for mental patients.  Audio: Questions about un-escorted leave for mental patients