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Accused Abbotsford school killer due back in court next month after psych assessment

Crown has called their last witness in trial of Gabriel Klein
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Gabriel Klein sits in the prisoner’s dock during the first day of his trial on Oct. 7 in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster. Sketch by Felicity Don

The Crown called its last witness Friday in the trial of the man charged with fatally stabbing 13-year-old Letisha Reimer at Abbotsford Senior Secondary in 2016.

Gabriel Klein, 24, will next appear in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster on Dec. 9, at which time the results of a psychiatric assessment are scheduled to be presented.

Klein is on trial for the second-degree murder of Reimer and the aggravated assault of a 14-year-old girl (who cannot be named due to a publication ban) on Nov. 1, 2016.

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The defence has not yet presented its case in court. But Crown lawyer Rob Macgowan said in his opening submissions on the first day of the trial that neither side is disputing that Klein stabbed the two girls.

The question to be determined is whether Klein was not criminally responsible (NCR) due to a mental disorder.

Klein, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia, was found not fit to stand trial on three separate occasions before the BC Review Board ruled in January of this year that he was now fit.

An NCR ruling at the conclusion of the trial would mean that the judge believes that Klein did not have the capacity to appreciate his actions and know right from wrong at the time of the offence.

Individuals who receive such a ruling fall under the mandate of the BC Review Board, which conducts an assessment to determine whether the person should be detained in a hospital, discharged in the community under certain conditions or discharged without conditions.

The trial is expected to conclude in late December.



Vikki Hopes

About the Author: Vikki Hopes

I have been a journalist for almost 40 years, and have been at the Abbotsford News since 1991.
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