Man who killed 'best and only friend' in Vancouver alley not criminally responsible
Warning: This story contains disturbing details.
A man who stabbed his friend to death in a Vancouver alley was experiencing a paranoid delusion that the victim had poisoned his milk, the B.C. Supreme Court heard in a tragic case that resulted in the killer being found not criminally responsible.
John Huang had been suffering a psychotic episode and "lacked the capacity to know the moral wrongfulness of his actions," according to a report from a psychiatrist who assessed him after the attack.
The court heard Huang showed up at the home Damien Leung shared with his common-law partner and her three children on the night of Nov. 14, 2020, and tried to enter through multiple locked doors.
Leung told his partner he was going for a smoke, put on a sweater, and went outside to meet Huang. The men proceeded to walk into the back alley, where Huang pulled out a knife and stabbed Leung repeatedly in the torso.
In his March 7 decision, which was recently posted online, Justice Andrew Mayer described the victim as "Mr. Huang's friend, and perhaps his best and only friend."
The two had met the previous year, when Leung and his partner were living at a Vancouver motel where Huang worked as a front desk clerk. The men become close, and often met for meals.
But the court heard Huang one day became convinced – wrongly – that Leung had somehow poisoned milk he bought during one of their outings.
"During the early morning hours of Nov. 14, 2020, Mr. Huang placed a number of calls, some unanswered, to Mr. Leung's cellphone," Mayer wrote.
"Mr. Huang told Mr. Leung that voices in his head had told him that Mr. Leung had spiked his milk, and that Mr. Leung was lying. Mr. Leung had not spiked Mr. Huang's milk."
Two different psychiatrists, identified in the decision as Dr. Lacroix and Dr. Tomita, provided expert opinions diagnosing the killer with schizophrenia. The court heard Huang likely suffered from his condition for years, but that his symptoms had been escalating leading up to the attack.
After stabbing his friend, Huang paced back and forth on a nearby sidewalk until police arrested him. He had several deep cuts to his fingers that were bleeding profusely, but "expressed no pain or discomfort" as he was being bandaged by first responders, Mayer wrote.
Schizophrenia is a chronic brain disorder that can cause delusions and hallucinations, and leave people unable to distinguish between "real and unreal experiences," according to the American Psychiatric Association. While there is no cure, symptoms can be treated with antipsychotic medications.
It's unclear whether Huang was ever diagnosed or put on those medications prior to his arrest, despite a number of troubling prior incidents.
The court did hear that in 2019, his family doctor referred him to a psychiatrist, who learned about some of his delusions from family members and "queried a possible diagnosis of psychosis NOS (not otherwise specified)."
On the morning of the stabbing, Huang was also taken to hospital after telling his father about the voices he was hearing. He then told staff he was experiencing "racing thoughts, auditory hallucinations, insomnia and shortness of breath," according to Mayer's decision.
"The doctor who examined Mr. Huang at this time, who was not a psychiatrist, found that he did not present with obvious signs of suicidal or homicidal ideation, and he was not referred to a psychiatrist or certified under the Mental Health Act," the judge wrote.
Mayer accepted the expert opinions presented at trial and found the killer not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. He ordered that Huang be sent to the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam pending a hearing with the B.C. Review Board.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Bob Cole, veteran CBC broadcaster and former voice of 'Hockey Night in Canada,' dead at 90
Bob Cole, legendary CBC broadcaster and former voice of Hockey Night in Canada, has died. He was 90.
Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction overturned by N.Y. appeals court
New York's highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction, reversing a landmark ruling of the #MeToo era in determining the trial judge improperly allowed women to testify about allegations against the ex-movie mogul that weren't part of the case.
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
MPP Sarah Jama asked to leave Ontario legislature for wearing keffiyeh
MPP Sarah Jama was asked to leave the Legislative Assembly of Ontario by House Speaker Ted Arnott on Thursday for wearing a keffiyeh, a garment that is banned at Queen’s Park.
CTE: Researchers believe widespread brain injury may contribute to veteran suicide rate
Researchers are working to better understand if some Canadian military veterans may be suffering from Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, also known as CTE -- a disorder previously found in the brains of professional football and hockey players after their death.
1 arrested in northern Alberta during public shelter order
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
New deep-water channel allows first ship to pass Key bridge wreckage in Baltimore
The first cargo ship passed through a newly opened deep-water channel in Baltimore on Thursday after being stuck in the harbor since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed four weeks ago, halting most maritime traffic through the city's port.