On the same day of the brazen stabbing on Toronto's subway system, the accused, Moses Lewin, was supposed to make an appearance in a Milton, Ont. courtroom to face another string of charges, court staff say — but he didn’t show up.
Instead, the court issued him a bench warrant.
Months before, Lewin was supposed to be in court in Toronto on other charges that included illegally possessing an eight-inch fishing knife, and never appeared, documents say. It’s unclear why the Toronto court released Lewin in the first place — he had another outstanding bench warrant after not showing up for further charges in Newmarket, the records show.
These are among several bench warrants, missed appearances, and charges of failure to comply with release orders described in documents obtained by CTV News that have sparked questions about whether various Toronto-area authorities could have done more to hold Moses Lewin in custody before the attack.
“It all suggests the justices of the peace telling him to behave is not worth the paper it’s printed on,” criminal lawyer Ari Goldkind said in an interview.
The violent melee on the TTC’s line 1 over the lunch hour on July 6 was caught on video, which shows subway riders scattering as an argument between two men boiled over into a fight.
The victim survived. Lewin was arrested Friday and charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, and assault with a weapon.
But other charges laid that day, two counts of failure to comply with release orders, are a clue that wasn't Lewin’s first run-in with the justice system.
In April 2022, he was up on charges in Newmarket of stealing a motor vehicle, possessing break-in instruments, and possessing 10 licence plates.
Then, he was released on $500 surety, but didn’t how up to his next appearance, so the court issued a bench warrant for him on April 26, 2022.
In June 2022, he was charged in Milton for break and enter, theft of a motor vehicle, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, flight from a peace officer, and failure to comply with a release order.
CTV News obtained pictures of the stolen van, recovered damaged after a joyride one person involved said went to Windsor and back.
But the Milton courthouse released him again on $200 surety, with no mention in the documents of the outstanding bench warrant.
Then in November, Lewin was charged with damaging windows at a business in the Scarborough Town Centre, being at large on a release order, possessing break-in instruments, and carrying a weapon: an 8-inch fishing knife.
He didn’t show up to court for an appearance on January 11th, the documents say.
And back in Milton, court staff said another bench warrant was issued on July 6.
The attack was frightening for riders, who have seen several high-profile attacks worry them about safety on transit.
Some advocates have said that the transit system is not inherently unsafe, but that it is a place where people let down by the justice system or mental health systems can pose a threat as they might anywhere else that people gather.
For example, a court heard that one man’s random stabbing of a complete stranger in a subway station April 2022 was preceded by a mental health disorder and crystal meth addiction that had not been treated successfully.
Another man who attacked a string of three women, including one in Dundas subway station, was a complex case of homelessness and schizophrenia that needed more robust supervision to ensure he wouldn’t attack again, a judge lamented.
