MANDEL: Lawyer with 'underlying psychosis' was on bail for domestic assault when husband killed
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Shortly after the Jamaican gay couple claimed refugee status here in 2020, Leahain Malcolm was taken to CAMH after telling husband Dr. Rupert Brown that he was hearing the voice of Justin Trudeau and wanted to see him.
In January 2021, Malcolm was charged with assaulting Brown after being accused of infidelity and was hospitalized at CAMH again, this time for 12 days, and diagnosed with amphetamine-induced psychosis.
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A few weeks later, Malcolm called 911 to report that voices told him to kill his 38-year-old husband because he was a demon, according to the Crown.
On Feb. 27, 2021, police found Brown’s body in the couple’s blood-spattered Eglinton Ave. W. apartment. He’d suffered more than 30 sharp force injuries, including two that would have been fatal: a stab wound to the chest and an incised wound to the left arm that severed an artery.
Malcolm has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder — with his defence team expected to argue before Superior Court Justice Heather McArthur that he’s not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
Testifying for the defence, Dr. Lisa Ramshaw told lawyer Andrea VanderHeyden that her 2023 assessment found Malcolm “likely” has an underlying psychotic disorder and it’s “likely” he did experience psychotic symptoms at the time he allegedly killed his husband.
But the forensic psychiatrist admitted she can’t be definitive in her opinion, especially when Malcolm told her he doesn’t remember the slaying, so there are a lot of “ifs” in her conclusion.
“If he was psychotic and he feared he was going to be killed by his husband, thinking that his husband was a form of a demon, it is likely that he would have been unable to access the moral wrongfulness at the time. It’s an ‘if, then’ scenario. It is not a firm opinion,” she explained.
“But I can’t tell you, with the information I have, whether that is truly the case.”
While Ramshaw admitted that she’s can’t offer a firm opinion whether she supports or doesn’t support a finding of NCR, it was clear to her that the accused killer wants to be found not criminally responsible and that could have tailored his answers during his assessment.
“When a human being wants something, it will impact his storytelling,” she said.
Court heard Malcolm was first hospitalized in Jamaica in 2019 after a suicide attempt — he was depressed over a series of issues: he’d graduated with a law degree in 2014 but failed his certification three times, he’d contracted HIV and felt his sexual orientation wasn’t accepted. He reported stopping his anti-psychotic medications after coming to Canada in January 2020.
Crown attorney Brady Donohue grilled the defence expert, suggesting Malcolm’s claim about “hearing voices” on the 911 call and to police is self-serving. He didn’t report hearing voices when he was at CAMH just weeks before the killing and he’s only been diagnosed in the past with substance-induced psychosis — not schizophrenia. She questioned why he wasn’t exhibiting any of those symptoms in his police interview just hours later.
Ramshaw insisted it’s “not that unusual” for psychotic symptoms to disappear and cautioned that she hasn’t diagnosed Malcolm with schizophrenia – only that she can’t rule it out.
Donohue pressed her on Malcolm’s police interview where he’s calm, gives nuanced answers, shows no problems with his memory and knows where he is.
“From the interview, from watching it, he doesn’t have any overt psychosis,” Ramshaw agreed.
Donohue pointed to many times where Malcolm chooses not to answer certain police questions.
“Doesn’t that indicate that he’s capable of making a decision?” the prosecutor asked. “Mr. Malcolm could be psychotic and still capable of exercising rational choice.”
The forensic psychiatrist agreed that appears to be true during his police interview.
“But that doesn’t necessarily translate to what he was experiencing earlier on with his husband and his beliefs at the time.”
Ramshaw then repeated that she’s “not definitive” about her opinion. “Mine is really based on, if he was psychotic and if he truly feared that his husband was Satan.”
The trial continues.
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