The case of the man found guilty of murdering 10 people and attempting to kill 16 others in the 2018 Toronto van attack has been adjourned until May.
Lawyers for the Crown and the accused appeared in court to discuss next steps for sentencing on Thursday and the proceedings took place without media or members of the public present.
Earlier this month, Ontario Superior Court Justice Anne Molloy found Alek Minassian criminally responsible for his actions when he intentionally plowed down pedestrians along Yonge Street in North York on April 23, 2018.
The attack claimed the lives of 85-year-old Munir Abdo Habib Najjar, 45-year-old Chul “Eddie” Min Kang, 30-year-old Anne Marie D’Amico, 80-year-old Dorothy Sewell, 55-year-old Beutis Renuka Amarasingha, 94-year-old Mary Elizabeth Forsyth, 22-year-old So He Chung, 33-year-old Andrea Bradden, 83-year-old Geraldine Brady, and 22-year-old Ji Hun Kim.
Minassian’s defence lawyers unsuccessfully argued that their client should be found not criminally responsible (NCR) under Sec. 16 of the Criminal Code due to his Autism Spectrum Disorder.
But in her 58-page decision, Molloy found that the accused had a "functioning, rational brain" that “perceived the reality of what he was doing” and knew it was “morally wrong by society’s standards, and contrary to everything he had been taught about right and wrong.”
“He chose to commit the crimes anyway, because it was what he really wanted to do. This was the exercise of free will by a rational brain, capable of choosing between right and wrong,” she said as she read parts of her decision aloud to spectators over YouTube.
Molloy also refused to name the accused in her decision, referring to him instead as “John Doe.”
"One of the issues with which I have struggled is that this accused committed a horrific crime... for the purpose of achieving fame," Molloy said in her decision.
"I am acutely aware that all of this attention and media coverage is exactly what this man sought from the start.”
Molloy's ruling means Minassian will have to serve a life sentence in federal prison and at his sentencing hearing, the judge will determine at what point he will be eligible to apply for parole.
First-degree murder carries a mandatory parole ineligibility period of 25 years but the issue is whether he will be sentenced to multiple periods of ineligibility based on the number of victims.
Last year, Quebec's top court found the section of the Criminal Code permitting consecutive life sentences unconstitutional and the Supreme Court of Canada is expected to weigh in on the issue.
A date for sentencing has not yet been set and the case returns to court on May 31.
-With files from The Canadian Press
