Nanaimo man found not criminally responsible for woman's murder
A Vancouver Island man who pleaded guilty to stabbing a stranger to death outside his grandparents' home in Nanaimo, B.C., has been found not criminally responsible for the woman's murder due to a mental disorder.
Simon James Baker, then 21 years old, attacked 41-year-old Denise Allick in 2022, fatally stabbing her six times in the face, neck and shoulder.
On Wednesday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson found "that in the moments when Mr. Baker stabbed Ms. Allick, he was incapable of rationally considering whether his conduct in the particular circumstances would have been morally condemned by reasonable members of society."
The court heard that Baker was watching television with his grandparents on June 20, 2022, and planned to visit a friend's house later that night. At approximately 10:10 p.m., he told his grandmother he was going outside for a cigarette, and she responded that she would take him to his friend's house when he was ready to go.
One or two minutes later, the grandmother heard a woman screaming outside the home. She opened the door to find Allick bleeding on the ground and Baker standing nearby, saying "this chick was attacking me," the judge wrote in his decision published online Friday.
Baker, uninjured, went inside and told his grandfather, who was partially deaf, that there was a woman covered in blood outside.
Allick was still breathing when the grandmother called 911, but died during the six-minute call, according to the judge. A stab wound to her neck had severed her left carotid artery, causing her death, the court heard.
'IS THAT WOMAN ALRIGHT?'
While his grandmother was on the phone with the 911 operator, Baker called a taxi and asked to be picked up at a nearby school. He was picked up at 10:25 p.m. and the taxi took him back to his grandparents' home, where he was arrested by Mounties around 10:36 p.m.
Police found a knife in the pocket of Baker's hooded sweater, and he told police that he was an opiate addict and had taken a small amount of drugs an hour earlier but was starting to experience withdrawal symptoms.
"Is that woman alright?" Baker asked police while being transported to the Nanaimo RCMP detachment. At the police station, when he was told a second time that he was under arrest for murder, he replied: "So she's not alright," the court heard.
While his grandmother was on the phone with the 911 operator, Simon Baker called a taxi and asked to be picked up at a nearby school. The taxi took him to his grandparents' home, where he was arrested by Mounties. (CTV News)
The judge said it remains unclear why Allick was at the house that night.
"There is no evidence that Mr. Baker knew Ms. Allick, and no evidence that reveals why she was on Mr. Baker's grandparents' property," he said.
The Victoria woman had been drinking with a friend at a Nanaimo home when they left to go to a liquor store a couple blocks from Baker's grandparents' house around 9 p.m.
After leaving the liquor store, Allick went next door to a gas station to buy cigarettes, where she bumped into the 11-year-old child of her friend's former partner, the court heard.
"Ms. Allick yelled at and grabbed the child," the judge said. "After this altercation, Ms. Allick's friend walked home and Ms. Allick left in her car. The car was ultimately located on 8th Street, parked in the same block as Mr. Baker's grandparents' home."
DEMONIC POSSESSION AND DRUG USE
Two forensic psychiatrists testified that Baker was experiencing schizophrenia, compounded by very serious substance-use disorders at the time of the murder. Baker had been undergoing treatment with an antipsychotic medication and was nearly due for his monthly injection, said the judge.
Baker had his first mental health assessment in December 2017, when he was 17 years old.
He told doctors he was experiencing delusions and hallucinations of people breaking into his home. He was hospitalized for weeks in which he "persistently held onto the ideas that he was attacked in the emergency room by being hit on the knee with a baseball bat, and that his mother was raped in the emergency room," according to the judge.
He was prescribed monthly injections of the anti-psychotic medication Abilify (aripiprazole) in 2018, however he continued to experience intermittent psychotic episodes over the coming years, including at least two in which he brandished knives.
During an interview with police two days after the murder, Baker's mother told investigators her son had been "paranoid, delusional and very concerned about trespassing on his property" for several months.
She also said her son believed he was possessed by a demon at his grandparents' house, and she described his drug use escalating from alcohol and marijuana as a teenager to cocaine and eventually fentanyl.
"It is clear from interactions with the police and hospital staff, and the accounts of his family, that in the months leading up to the event he was intermittently psychotic with prominent paranoia. For several years he harboured beliefs that he would be attacked in his home," the judge said.
"I think it is likely true that this terrible event unfolded within seconds. I find that Mr. Baker reacted on impulse rooted in paranoia when he stabbed Ms. Allick, with little or no opportunity for rational consideration."
The judge ordered that Baker be held in custody at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam, B.C., pending a disposition by the provincial review board.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Air turbulence: When can it become dangerous?
Flight turbulence like that encountered by a Singapore Airlines flight on Tuesday is extremely common, but there's one aspect of severe turbulence an aviation expert says can lead to serious injury.
B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton hospitalized after prison attack
British Columbia serial killer Robert Pickton was attacked and sustained life-threatening injuries in a Quebec prison Sunday in what officials described as a 'major assault.'
opinion Tom Mulcair: With Trudeau spiralling, Mark Carney waits in the wings
In his latest column for CTVNews.ca, former NDP leader Tom Mulcair argues that if there's an unofficial frontrunner in the eventual race to replace Justin Trudeau as Liberal leader, it has to be former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney.
Toronto Blue Jays fan struck by 110 m.p.h foul ball offered tickets, signed baseball by team
The Toronto Blue Jays have offered tickets and a signed baseball to a fan who says she was struck in the face by a 110 m.p.h (177 km/h) foul ball at Friday’s game.
Orphan orca's extended family spotted off northeast side of Vancouver Island
Members of a killer whale pod related to an orphan orca calf that escaped a remote British Columbia tidal lagoon last month have been spotted off the northeast coast of Vancouver Island.
OPP continues to investigate boat collision north of Kingston, Ont. that left 3 people dead
Ontario Provincial Police continue to investigate a long weekend fatal boat collision on Bobs Lake, north of Kingston, Ont.
Matthew Perry's death is being investigated over ketamine level found in actor's blood, reports say
An investigation has been opened into the death of Matthew Perry and how the “Friends” actor received the anesthetic ketamine, which was ruled a contributing factor in his death.
WATCH Why today's inflation numbers are good if you have a mortgage
New inflation data is 'welcome news' for consumers and an economist says it could signal the possibility for a interest rate cut as several core measures also continue to ease.
'Miscommunication' Liberals say of Speaker Fergus event invite Conservatives call partisan
House of Commons Speaker Greg Fergus is facing fresh Conservative-led calls to resign, this time over "very partisan" and 'inflammatory' language used – the Liberals say mistakenly – to promote an upcoming event.