A man accused of murder in a fatal Vancouver stabbing on a café patio more than three years ago was in an "unmedicated psychotic state" that impaired his ability to understand the consequences of his actions, his lawyer argued on Tuesday.
Inderdeep Singh Gosal pleaded not guilty in February to second-degree murder in the death of Paul Schmidt, that was captured on video and widely shared on social media.
Defence lawyer Gloria Ng argued during her closing remarks that her client should instead be found guilty of manslaughter, saying Gosal's actions were an "overreaction due to mental illness" rather than a "deliberate intent to kill," on March 26, 2023.
She said he did not have the foresight needed to conclude that the bodily harm he inflicted was likely to cause death.
"Rather, Mr. Gosal's conduct is consistent with the actions of a person whose perception of reality and appreciation of consequences were profoundly distorted by an untreated mental illness," she told her client's judge-alone trial.
Gosal, who appeared at the B.C. Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday wearing a blue sweater over a white collared shirt, earlier testified that he found the knife in an alley and took it as a "sign from God" that he needed to protect himself.
CCTV footage played in court in February showed a verbal confrontation between the two men that turned physical when Schmidt approached Gosal, who was smoking something near the Starbucks entrance.
The altercation left Schmidt lying in a pool of blood after being stabbed six times in the chest.
The trial heard that Gosal suffers from schizophrenia and he testified that he had stopped taking his medication about three months before the killing.
Gosal testified that he felt threatened during the incident but did not intend to kill Schmidt.
Ng summarized the evidence of two forensic psychiatrists, Dr. Johann Brink and Dr. Rakesh Lamba, on Tuesday.
She said Brink concluded that Gosal's actions on the day were an overreaction caused by anxiety, fear and a "complex interplay of factors rather than purely psychosis." Ng said Brink also testified that Gosal's inability to remember some details of the event "supports the psychiatric explanation of the overreaction."
She noted that Lamba concluded that Gosal's mental disorder was active at the time of the offence, but disagreed that it impaired him from understanding the foresight of his actions.
But Ng called Lamba's opinion "problematic" and said the totality of evidence — including Gosal's unmedicated psychotic state, his paranoia and fear, schizophrenia, and the potential for psychosis to "blur awareness and impair the appreciation of consequences" — presented reasonable doubt that he "possessed the subjective foresight of death required for murder."
Ultimately, Ng said a "verdict of manslaughter is an appropriate finding."
The Crown is expected to begin its closing submission Tuesday afternoon.
Picture Courtesy: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns
