MANDEL: Is accused serial killer now fit to stand trial?
A forensic psychiatrist testified Sabrina Kauldhar has 'no psychotic symptoms to impact her being meaningfully present at her trial'
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The woman accused of the shocking murders of three people over three days last fall has improved after receiving medication for her schizophrenia – and she could finally be scheduled to stand trial for murder.
But the lawyer for Sabrina Kauldhar insists she still doesn’t understand the charges against her.
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It’s clear she understands this much – a mental hospital is certainly much nicer that jail.
Kauldhar begged the Crown psychiatrist to send her back for treatment rather than returning her to prison where she claimed she’s not safe.
Often standing to pace in the small prisoner’s box, Kauldhar wore a lime green sweatshirt and black head scarf as lawyers and a judge in the downtown mental health court discussed her future on Friday.
Kauldhar was arrested in October 2024 and charged with one count of first-degree murder and two counts of second-degree murder involving three slayings that took place over three consecutive days in Toronto, Niagara Falls and Hamilton.
In March, an Ontario court ruled the unresponsive accused killer was unfit to stand trial and ordered her to undergo 60 days of psychiatric treatment. Released from CAMH and returned to prison on May 30, she was now back in court for her second fitness hearing and this time, Crown attorney Joanne Capozzi argued that she’s improved enough to go to trial.
Dr. Amina Ali told Justice Russell Silverstein that Kauldhar has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder in the past and was hospitalized as recently as February 2022 at Credit Valley hospital. While under the treatment order at CAMH, she was given two anti-psychotic medications and is no longer showing any outward symptoms of her mental illness – she isn’t hearing voices or having delusions or hallucinations.
The forensic psychiatrist testified that where Kauldhar used to remain mute, she now engages with staff members, especially when she wants something.
During her stay, Ali said, she assaulted a patient and a worker but was released after 15 days of seclusion after she responded to a staff question and said she didn’t want to hurt anyone.
At their meeting just before the hearing Friday, Ali said Kauldhar recognized her and responded to her questions at first.
“And then she stated that ‘I need to come back to treatment. Can you say I’m unfit? I can’t be at jail. I feel unsafe. Will you tell them?'”
Ali said Kauldhar knew her charges were “homicide” and she had a choice to plead guilty or not guilty. When the psychiatrist tried to ask more, she said Kauldhar announced the conversation was over.
“I think at this point, she is choosing not to engage in some questions that are part of this process,” Ali said. “There are no psychotic symptoms to impact her being meaningfully present at her trial.”
Defence lawyer Rick Frank said Kauldhar doesn’t have “a reality-based understanding” that she faces three separate murder charges in three different jurisdictions and as recently as that morning, she either didn’t answer questions or her speech was unintelligible.
“Ms. Kauldhar cannot be meaningfully present and cannot meaningfully participate,” Frank insisted.
The judge pushed back, saying the psychiatrist has found she’s improved and is able to understand what she’s facing.
“I’m telling Your Honour … I’m not able to get meaningful instructions,” the lawyer said.
Silverstein suggested that according to the psychiatrist, his difficult client is making a conscious choice not to answer certain questions.
And Kauldhar may be as wily as a fox.
“I think implicit in the doctor’s evidence is that Ms. Kauldhar is angling to be found unfit so as to be taken out of jail and put in hospital, which is where she’d rather be,” the judge said. “It demonstrates some sophisticated, purposeful behaviour on her part.”
The killing spree allegedly began Oct. 1, when Toronto Police were called to a basement apartment in the Junction and found the body of Kauldhar’s roommate, 66-year-old Trinh Thi Vu.
Police believe the next two victims were strangers to their alleged killer: Chef Lance Cunningham, 47, had gone to walk his dogs at a Niagara Falls park before picking his daughter up from school when he was killed.
The following day, Mario Bilich, a 77-year-old retired teacher, was slain in the Hamilton parking lot of his Sicilian social club.
Kauldhar is charged with first-degree murder in Bilich’s death and second-degree murder in the Toronto and Niagara investigations.
Will she stand trial? The judge has reserved his decision to next week.
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