Toronto man who killed, decapitated mother sentenced to life in prison, no parole for 13 years
An Ontario man found guilty of killing and decapitating his mother in 2022 has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 13 years.
Superior Court Justice Paul Thomas O'Marra handed the sentence to 23-year-old Dallas Ly in a downtown Toronto courtroom on Wednesday, the Crown confirmed to CTV News Toronto.
At the outset of his May trial, Ly admitted to causing the death of his mother, Tien Ly, but pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Tien died in March 2022 after being stabbed multiple times at a residence at Carlaw Avenue and Dundas Street East. She was 46.
Tien Ly, killed in her Leslieville apartment in March 2022, can be seen above. (TPS)
Ly was arrested days later, on April 2, near Yonge and Dundas streets.
Back in May, Ly testified that on the day his mother died, the two had been engaged in an argument. Ly had just informed his mother he intended to move out and live with his aunt, he told the court. His mother became enraged, threatened to kill both him and his aunt, and struck him, Dallas said. He reacted by grabbing a knife and swinging it at her, he testified.
Tien fell to the floor, Dallas told the court. After realizing he’d killed his mother, he returned to his bedroom, where he stayed for several hours. At multiple points during this period, the court heard he attempted to call his mother’s phone.
Later that day, Dallas decapitated Tien, put her head and dismembered body parts in garbage bags and disposed of them using a shopping cart, on Eastern Avenue in east Toronto. According to his testimony, he intended to take the body to Tommy Thompson Park, which he’d previously searched on a browser, but he said he hit a curb and that the body began to fall out. He abandoned his plan, he told the court, left the body parts on the side of the road, and went home.
At trial, Lawyers for Ly argued that he suffered years of abuse at the hands of Tien, who he said asserted significant control over his life, and that he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his mother’s treatment of him. The Crown disputed the onset of the PTSD diagnosis, arguing that the murder spurred the condition, rather than the years leading up to it.
According to prosecutors, Ly killed his mother out of anger and as a form of retribution for her tight grip on his life.
“She was cruel and she abused him,” Ly’s lawyer, Jessyca Greenwood, told the jury back in May. She said that, until the spring of 2022, Ly had never fought back against his mother, describing him as a “soft-spoken” and “mild-mannered” individual.
“He was raised to keep [his mother’s conduct] a secret. He believed it was normal, [...] that he deserved it,” Greenwood said.
Crown prosecutor Jay Spare tested that narrative, putting the question to the jury: “If he didn't intend to kill her, why didn’t he do anything to prevent her from dying?”
“She laid there in a pool of blood, he didn’t try and save her, he didn’t call 911, he just went and washed his hands, as if the result was what he intended,” Spare said in his closing remarks.
On May 22, the jury handed their verdict to Ly – guilty of second-degree murder – and with it, a life sentence.
The sole issue at hand at Wednesday’s sentencing was the length of time Ly would be required to wait before eligible to apply for parole. Spare argued that 15 years would be appropriate, while Greenwood asked for between 10 and 12 years.
As part of Wednesday’s sentencing, Ly was also issued a DNA order and a lifetime weapons ban. O’Marra also recommended he receives psychiatric support while in prison.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
![](https://www.ctvnews.ca/polopoly_fs/1.6946509.1719687583!/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/landscape_800/image.jpg)
Who are the richest people in Canada? Here's how many billionaires there are
If you gathered all the wealth that billionaires currently have worldwide, you would have about US$14.2 trillion, according to Forbes Magazine. But what about in Canada alone?
'7 years of regret': Raunchy leg piece wins bad tattoo competition at Edmonton Expo Centre
Friday night was a celebration of mistakes for a small group of body art enthusiasts.
Time crunch, rules mess could plague a Liberal leadership race
Calls have intensified for Justin Trudeau to resign as head of the party he almost single-handedly pulled back from the brink after a decimating electoral defeat in 2011.
Despair in the air: For many voters, the Biden-Trump debate means a tough choice just got tougher
The sound you might have heard after the presidential debate this past week was of voters falling between a rock and a hard place.
Lightning deal Sergachev, Jeannot; Maple Leafs acquire Tanev's rights at NHL draft
General managers wheeled and dealed Saturday in Sin City.
235 flights cancelled as WestJet waits to hear from labour minister on next steps in mechanics strike
WestJet said 235 flights have been cancelled Saturday as it waits to see what the next steps are in its ongoing labour dispute with its mechanics.
A year ago, she drank battery acid to escape life under the Taliban. Today, she has a message for other Afghan girls
Holding a mirror steady in one hand, Arzo carefully applies pencil to her brows as she gets ready for an English lesson a short walk from her home on the outskirts of Pakistani megacity Karachi.
A Florida auctioneer was about to sell an 1800s pocket watch. He learned it was a stolen piece of U.S. presidential history
A pocket watch that belonged to Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt was returned to his New York home this week after it was stolen decades ago and later showed up at an auction, according to the FBI and the National Park Service.
U.S. and Europe warn Lebanon's Hezbollah to ease strikes on Israel and back off from wider Mideast war
U.S., European and Arab mediators are pressing to keep stepped-up cross-border attacks between Israel and Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah militants from spiraling into a wider Middle East war that the world has feared for months. Iran and Israel traded threats Saturday of what Iran said would be an 'obliterating" war over Hezbollah.