Killer found not criminally responsible

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This article was published 19/10/2023 (620 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A judge agreed with the prosecution and defence joint recommendation that Trevor Farley be found not criminally responsible for his admitted killing of his mother in New Bothwell, father in Winnipeg, and attempted murder of his nursing supervisor at Seven Oaks Hospital.

A forensic report found in the weeks leading up to the attacks on Oct. 27, 2021, Farley was suffering from “religious-based command hallucinations” that made him believe the victims were “contaminated with evil” and the evil needed to be “cut out.”

With the Oct. 17 ruling, the Criminal Code Review Board is now in charge of when Farley must stay in a secured mental hospital or be released, and whether any release has conditions tied to it.

In a first for Manitoba, the Crown prosecutors and defence lawyers jointly recommended designating Farley as high-risk. Court of King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne agreed to the rare designation on Wednesday.

The legislation created in 2014 requires him to appear before a judge ahead of the review board ruling on any release into the public.

A statement of agreed facts was read in court.

Warning, details of the crime follow:

Farley was separated from his wife of 12 years at the time and living in Winnipeg. His mother was texting him with concerns for his mental health.

Farley’s wife called the Crisis Response Centre in Winnipeg in the August prior, saying symptoms of sleeplessness and paranoia that appeared years earlier while he went to nursing school were back and she was concerned. She called again Oct. 23, saying she tried to get Farley to visit the centre, but he refused to get out of his car.

On the evening of Oct. 25, Farley visited the crisis centre complaining of COVID symptoms and trouble thinking. He did not support vaccination.

He moved on that night less than hour later to report at Health Sciences Centre that he was having a mental health crisis. An hour later he received an anti-depressant prescription at St Boniface hospital.

Farley was back in the emergency room before midnight saying he sensed “impending doom”, heard voices and had an “ability to engage in paranormal activities due to his superior intellect.” He was discharged and told he should see a counsellor.

Farley stayed overnight before the killings at the crisis centre. A psychiatric team determined he should be admitted voluntarily.

The morning of the killings, Farley messaged his father saying goodbye. Half an hour before he left the centre, he emailed his dad to say “please don’t ever call me again.”

Then at 11:35 a.m. Farley drove to his father’s on Toronto Street, found him talking on the phone to a friend, and stabbed him 33 times.

Farley drove to New Bothwell to his mother’s. By 12:30 p.m., he found his mom talking on the phone to his wife. She was heard yelling his name and he stabbed and beat her to death.

Then he drove to St Boniface hospital’s ER at 1:30 p.m., left after an interaction with a triage nurse, arrived at the crisis centre at 1:54 p.m., quickly left for Seven Oaks hospital where he worked. His supervisor said “Hi” as he walked by with a concealed knife. Farley turned around and stabbed her repeatedly until a doctor pulled him off.

He ran out of the hospital to be quickly arrested. His supervisor spent more than three months in hospital and has not returned to work.

-With files from Dean Pritchard/Winnipeg Free Press