Four months, then liberty

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This article was published 06/03/2009 (6062 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

JEFF Sinclair worries history is going to repeat itself.

The Winnipeg man was close friends with a city couple who were stabbed to death in 1999 by a neighbour who’d previously been found not criminally responsible for an earlier murder, only to be released from a mental health facility after four months.

Now Sinclair is worried the same Criminal Code Review Board that let Robert Chaulk back into society will make the same mistake when it comes time to decide the fate of Vincent Li.

"It just sickens me. This keeps going on and on and on," Sinclair told the Free Press Thursday.

He still thinks often of his two friends, Debra Beaulieu, 39, and Mirzet Zec, 37, and believes their deaths at Chaulk’s hands should have been prevented. He said the victims had no idea the violent history of the man living in their downtown Winnipeg apartment building.

Chaulk’s name is well-known in Canadian legal circles, as his original case made the Supreme Court redefine criminal insanity in a landmark decision. Chaulk was originally found guilty of killing an elderly man in 1985, but the country’s highest court overturned the verdict based on his severe mental illness.

Chaulk was only 15 when he and a teenaged friend were sentenced to life in prison for beating 83-year-old George Haywood to death. The pair told police they believed killing the senior would increase their mental abilities to "superhuman" levels and allow them to rule the world. They felt they weren’t subject to "paper" laws — such as the Criminal Code.

The case dragged through various appeal courts for years before the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that a finding of insanity could be returned if it could be proved the accused was incapable of understanding that his actions were morally wrong. Previously, an accused was considered guilty as long as he understood his actions broke the law.

After the high court ruling, Chaulk and his co-accused faced a new trial and were found not criminally responsible by a jury.

Chaulk’s mental illness wasn’t an issue in the killing of Sinclair’s friends case and he pleaded guilty to two counts of manslaughter. He was sentenced to life in prison with parole eligibility after seven years. Chaulk remains in custody.

www.mikeoncrime.com