Son found guilty in hatchet slaying of his mother

BRANDON — A Brandon man has been found guilty of killing his 71-year-old mother with a hatchet in the fall of 2023 after his lawyers argued he should be held not criminally responsible.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Elliot Leven found 47-year-old Gabriel Heymans guilty of second-degree murder on Monday.

Heymans, who listened to the hearing by phone from the Brandon Regional Health Centre, will be sentenced at a later date.

During the April trial, court heard Heymans lived with his mother, Maureen Heymans, for seven years in a two-bedroom apartment in Brandon and hadn’t spoken to her for more than a year before her death.

An autopsy report showed she had five chop wounds in her head, along with several cuts on her right arm, hand and one of her fingers.

Heymans told police the last time he saw his mother awake was when he returned home from the grocery store in the afternoon on Oct. 25, 2023, and she was eating in the kitchen.

Heymans said he took a nap until 5 p.m., woke up, made pizza pops and watched two movies before falling asleep again.

At about 5 a.m., he said, he woke up to make more pizza pops before going back to bed. When he awoke for the day at 9:30 a.m., he saw his mother lying on the floor surrounded by blood with a hatchet close by, Heymans said.

He thought she was sleeping, noting that the pool of blood near her head wasn’t getting larger, so he didn’t believe her injuries were serious and never called 911, court heard.

Heymans said he kept the hatchet in a bag in his bedroom, along with loose change.

During his interview with police, Heymans said he believed an unknown attacker had entered the apartment and used the hatchet to injure his mother.

Surveillance footage showed Maureen Heymans alive for the last time on Oct. 24, 2023, while she was checking the mail.

Her body was discovered on Nov. 3 of that year by a maintenance man who knocked on the door before entering the suite. He alerted police of the decomposing body.

When officers arrived at the scene, they made eye contact with Heymans, who had darted into another room before he was arrested.

Court heard Heymans had a traumatic brain injury in 1998, but a forensic psychiatrist ruled the accused was fit to stand trial and was ineligible for a not criminally responsible defence.

His lawyers argued the fact that Heymans continued with his daily routines, despite his mother’s decomposing body, showed he is someone who should not be held criminally responsible.

— Brandon Sun