TORONTO -- Alek Minassian’s father is expected to testify at his son’s murder trial next week as the 28-year-old’s not criminally responsible defence begins, a court heard on Thursday.
On the second day of the high-profile trial, which is being held via videoconference amid the COVID-19 pandemic, defence lawyer Boris Bytensky said “Mr. Minassian Sr.” is set to detail his son’s “upbringing and background” as he takes the stand for at least two days beginning on Monday.
Prior to Minassian’s father testifying on Monday, the Crown is expected to deliver a fourth agreed statement of facts and formally close its case.
Minassian is not expected to testify during the trial, which began on Tuesday and is expected to take between four and six weeks.
More than two and a half years ago, on April 23, 2018, Minassian drove a rented white van down busy sidewalks along Yonge Street, between Finch and Sheppard avenues. He struck dozens of people, ultimately killing eight women and two men.
The victims were 22-year-old Ji Hun Kim, 22-year-old So He Chung, 30-year-old Anne Marie D’Amico, 33-year-old Andrea Bradden, 45-year-old Chul “Eddie” Min Kang, 55-year-old Beutis Renuka Amarasingha, 83-year-old Geraldine Brady, 85-year-old Munir Abdo Habib Najjar, and 94-year-old Mary Elizabeth Forsyth.
Minassian faces 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder.
On the first day of the trial, Minassian was read his charges and replied saying “I’m entering a plea of not criminally responsible.”
Minassian has admitted to planning and carrying out the attack, citing years of sexual rejection from women as the reasoning behind it.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy, who is overseeing the case, says the trial hinges on Minassian’s state of mind at the time.
Under Sec. 16 of the Criminal Code, a person is not criminally responsible if they were suffering from a mental disorder that rendered them “incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or omission or of knowing that it was wrong.”
The defence is expected to call various experts in the fields of psychiatry and psychology to testify following Minassian’s father taking the stand.
Minassian’s thought process similar to psychosis, defence’s expert says
On Thursday, court heard that a psychiatrist hired by defence lawyers found Minassian to have an “autistic way of thinking.”
Defense lawyers have not yet laid out what mental disorder Minassian had at the time of the deadly attack that could have made him not understand what he was doing was wrong.
But, on Thursday, while making submissions pertaining to a motion filed by the Crown, prosecutor Joseph Callaghan provided insight into some of the evidence Minassian’s lawyers may rely on during the trial.
A report prepared by a psychiatrist hired by the defence states that Minassian was not psychotic, but had a thought process similar to psychosis, Callaghan said.
According to Callaghan, the report stated that Minassian denied having symptoms consistent with psychotic illness, including visual and auditory hallucinations.
“However, his thought process was very concrete and inflexible,” the report said, according to Callaghan. “Mr. Minassian answered questions in a very concrete way often requiring the interviewer to rephrase questions several times in order for him to answer.”
The matter was brought up as the Crown was attempting to gain access to video and audio recordings of interviews the doctor conducted with Minassian and members of his family, as well as those conducted by other experts. The interviews all together are about 30 hours in length.
Following submissions from both sides, the judge ruled that the video and audio recordings must be produced for the Crown if the doctor who conducted them is being called to the stand.
Prior to the Crown’s motion being heard, prosecutors detailed two agreed statements of facts on Thursday – one pertaining to the incel subculture and the other regarding evidence seized by police after Minassian was taken into custody.
“Incel, short for ‘involuntarily celibate,’ are members of a subculture who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite their desire or attempt to find one,” the agreed statement of facts said.
It went on to state that incels are known to refer to attractive sexually active women as “Stacys” and attractive sexually active men as “Chads.”
Two individuals “notoriously connected to the incel movement” are mass-murderers Elliot Rodger and Chris Harper-Mercer, the agreed statement of facts said. Rodger killed six people near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara on May 23, 2014 and Harper-Mercer killed an assistant professor and eight students inside a classroom at a campus near Roseburg, Oregon on Oct. 1, 2015.
Minassian has claimed that he communicated with Rodger and Harper-Mercer but police have found no evidence of that.
After Minassian was arrested on the day of the attack, investigators seized 29 electronic devices from his home, including a laptop, external hard drive and internal hard drive.
On Thursday, Crown prosecutor John Rinaldi said 41 documents, which were school assignments, were seized by investigators from those devices. Those documents have been analyzed by psychiatrists and psychologists involved in the case.
One of the assignments, a mock infomercial for a made-up product called “Glassphone,” was played in court on Thursday. The video showed Minassian detailing the product. Two other males appear in the video but their faces were blurred. Minassian says “thanks for watching” at the end of the video.
No further details regarding that video were discussed on Thursday and it is not known when that school assignment was recorded.
Minassian grew up in Richmond Hill, Ont. and lived with his father, mother and brother. He went to Thornlea Secondary School in Thornhill, Ont. and graduated in June 2011. He went on to attend Seneca College, earning a degree in software development.
He has previously said he chose the date of the deadly attack because he knew he would be finished his exams then.
Court will not sit on Friday due to a scheduling conflict, Molloy said, and will continue on Monday at 10 a.m.
Members of the public wanting to observe the proceedings can do so at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Those attending are required to wear a face mask, observe social distancing requirements and be subject to a screening questionnaire.
Here are live updates from the court proceedings:
