MANDEL: Double killer found NCR spared more jail time for earlier stabbing of his friend

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A man found not criminally responsible for butchering his parents with a golf club has avoided more prison time for stabbing his friend two years before the double murder.

The way is now clear for Kyle Sequeira to be moved to a psychiatric hospital where he’ll be under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Review Board. But prosecutors are still hoping to ensure that he isn’t released any time soon.

In March, Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy ruled Kyle Sequeira, 29, was not criminally responsible due to undiagnosed and untreated schizophrenia when he used a Callaway golf club to smash in the head of his mother Lynette Sequeira, 65, and to beat and mutilate his father Francis “Frank” Sequeira, 68, in the master bedroom of their Scarborough home over Labour Day weekend in 2021.

His parents had been sureties for the Toronto Metropolitan University business dropout who was set to go on trial that week on charges he stabbed his friend Christopher Smith 13 times in June 2019.

Following a night where they’d shared five pitchers of beer and Sequeira did a “bump” of cocaine, he’d been kicked out of the bar and they were walking to Smith’s home. Sequeira complained the security guard was racist but his buddy didn’t agree and told him to “chill.”

“As they were walking, Mr. Sequeira came up behind Mr. Smith and without any warning, started stabbing him,” Molloy said. “Mr. Smith was able to wrestle the knife away from Mr. Sequeira, at which point Mr. Sequeira fled the scene and went home, leaving his friend bleeding profusely on the ground.”

Smith could have died if witnesses in nearby homes hadn’t called 911 to come to his aid, she said.

Court heard his wounds required 12 hours of emergency surgery.

“His attack on his friend was grossly disproportionate to any grievance there could have been between them. However, I was not able to conclude that his thinking was so disordered that he didn’t know that stabbing Mr. Smith was morally wrong,” the judge said.

Molloy found Sequeira was criminally responsible – though likely already suffering from mental illness – and convicted him of aggravated assault. In her sentencing decision Friday, she said he’s already served the equivalent of six years in custody and sentenced him to time served plus one day.

“Mr. Sequeira was undiagnosed and untreated for several years. He is reportedly responding well to treatment in custody,” Molloy said. “The sooner he can be transferred to a psychiatric hospital, as opposed to a prison, the better his prospects for rehabilitation will become because of the improved environment and the access to specialized psychiatric and social services.”

But the court is not finished with him yet.

Crown attorney Dimitra Tsagaris is planning to apply next month to have Sequeira designated a “high-risk accused,” which, if granted by Molloy, would keep him safely in hospital and curtail any freedoms he may have under the ORB, including unescorted passes.

And when the ORB believes Sequeira is ready to be discharged back into the community, he can’t be released before the Superior Court agrees.

Another safety valve we need to keep us safe from this very dangerous man.

mmandel@postmedia.com