Posted on 03/05/2009 9:32:39 AM PST by xp38
Vince Li has been found not criminally responsible in the unprovoked killing and beheading of fellow passenger Timothy McLean on a Greyhound bus last summer.
Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Judge John Scurfield said Thursday that Li, 40, could not be found guilty of murder and is not criminally responsible for the crime because he was mentally ill at the time of the killing.
"These grotesque acts are appalling... but are suggestive of a mental disorder," the judge said.
"He did not appreciate the act he committed was wrong."
Li had pleaded not guilty to a charge of second-degree murder. Psychiatric evidence at his trial suggested he is a schizophrenic who suffered a major psychotic episode last July 30 when he stabbed McLean, 22, to death, ate some of the young victim's body parts and cut off McLean's head.
For five hours after the killing Li wandered around on the bus, from which passengers had fled onto a lonely stretch of Manitoba highway, defiling the body while an RCMP tactical team waited to subdue him.
Rather than go to prison, Li will be kept in a secure psychiatric facility, most likely in Selkirk, Man.
McLean, a carnival worker, was returning home to Winnipeg on the bus from Edmonton. Listening to his iPod while sitting in the back row of Greyhound bus 1170, he gave Li a friendly greeting as the stranger sat down beside him.
Then, around 8:30 p.m. CT, when the bus was near Portage La Prairie, Man., Li pulled a buck knife from his side and began stabbing the young man — for no apparent reason, witnesses said. Passengers fled the bus and RCMP were called as Li was barricaded inside the vehicle.
During the stabbing Li was heard to say, "get emergency." In a five-hour standoff with RCMP, Li severed McLean's head from his body, ate some body parts and stuffed other parts into plastic bags that he put in his pockets. He wandered around the bus carrying the severed head in one hand, the knife in the other. At one point he threw the severed head into the bus's stairwell.
When police finally subdued him, Li repeatedly said he was sorry but could not say what he was sorry for, officers said. He told police he had changed his name to Vince Day. And on one occasion he told police, "I'm guilty, please kill me."
In his trial this week, psychiatrists said Li was schizophrenic and suffering a major psychotic episode at the time of the frenzied killing.
Li heard voices from God telling him that McLean was an evil threat that needed to be eliminated, the psychiatrists said. Even after the killing, Li believed McLean might come back to life and threaten him. The psychiatrists testified Li fit the criteria as someone who was not criminally responsible for their actions due to mental illness.
That means he will be sent to a provincial psychiatric facility rather than to prison. He comes under the jurisdiction of Manitoba's provincial review board, which will decide whether he poses a risk to the public. The review board has the power to keep Li locked up indefinitely or, if he is no longer considered a risk, discharge him.
McLean's family had been lobbying for a change in the Criminal Code to prevent mentally ill killers from being released back into the community. His mother, Carol de Delley, has said that regardless of the verdict, she would do everything in her power to ensure Li is never released from secure custody.
Why do I hear about this every time I’m in Edmonton?
That whole situation was sad.
If Canadians had any balls, they may have stopped this in time.
Even the cops dicked around for FIVE hours while this maniac chopped and ate the body.
For how long? If it's forever, fine. If not...uhhh?
Is he a citizen of either the US or Canada. If not send him back to his country of origin.
And at what cost? Talk about a waste of oxygen, water and food.
You want to send him back to Hell?
And I ain't talkin 'bout the town in Michigan.
And here I thought Cananda had a strong fertilizer industry.
Well, what were you expecting from "peace officers"?
Dunno. Did you go there to get ahead?
That's odd. I'm hearing voices from God that tell me the same thing about Li.
I came here to visit family over spring break.
I would have thought the Canucks would have dealt with the Greyhound nut by now.
Which mental disorder, Islam or liberalism?
Take two:
Did you go there to get a head?
But the FReepers were correct, after all.
Apparently they do. Have you ever heard or seen a bigger load of crap than this?
It is suggestive alright. Suggestive of the death penalty.
His release out of custody (should be a sentence) should include a specified time in the mental facility. Something like 25 to life. The guy is disturbed but he should be treated like the murderer that he is.
One good head shot would’ve stopped this horrific embarrassment.
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