A man who stabbed a Victoria woman to death outside his grandparents’ home in south Nanaimo has been found not criminally responsible for the crime by reason of a mental disorder.
On Monday, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Douglas Thompson ordered that Simon Baker be held in custody at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam pending a disposition by the review board.
Baker, 23, pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Denise Allick on June 20, 2022. Court heard that Baker was watching TV with his grandparents that night and planned to go to a friend’s house. Around 10:10 p.m., he went outside for a cigarette. Baker, who was carrying a knife, came across Allick and stabbed her six times in the face, neck and shoulder. The stab wound to her neck severed her left carotid artery, causing her death.
His grandmother heard a woman screaming and went outside. She found Allick on the ground bleeding. Baker was standing nearby and said: “This chick was attacking me.”
Baker’s grandmother called 911 at 10:15 p.m. but Allick died before the paramedics arrived.
Baker was placed under arrest for murder. On the way to the detachment, he told police he was an opioid addict and was starting to get dope sick. He asked if the woman was all right. When he was advised he was under arrest for murder, he replied: “So she’s not all right.”
Thompson said it’s not clear why Allick, 41, was there that night.
“There’s no evidence Mr. Baker knew Ms. Allick and no evidence why she was on Mr. Baker’s grandparents property,” he said.
Allick had been drinking with a friend at a home in Nanaimo. They drove to a liquor store on Eighth Street, a few blocks from the house. There was an altercation and the friend walked home. Allick drove away and parked in the block where she was killed.
At the time, Baker was under the care of a psychiatrist and a mental-health case worker. He was being treated with an antipsychotic medication and was nearly due for a monthly injection, said Thompson.
Baker had his first mental-health assessment on Dec. 31, 2017, at age 17. Baker was brought to the Nanaimo Regional General Hospital emergency room because he was having hallucinations that people were breaking into his home. He was followed by a psychiatrist during his hospital stay, which lasted several weeks, but he persistently believed that he was being attacked and that his mother was being raped in the emergency room, said Thompson.
In early December 2021, Baker experienced psychotic hallucinations and told the emergency room doctor that he believed himself to be a god on Earth. The doctor noted his history of schizophrenia and cocaine use disorder and prescribed Abilify.
Later that month, Baker called police, then approached the officers with a knife in his hand. He was detained under the Mental Health Act and taken to the psychiatric emergency department. He was under the influence of substances and feeling depressed and anxious, the judge noted.
On April 13, 2022, Baker’s grandmother reported to police that he was having a psychotic break and had a machete. On May 27, three weeks before he stabbed Allick, Baker was treated in the Nanaimo hospital emergency room again. During that visit, Baker said his medication had been decreased a few weeks early and he thought he needed it increased because he was feeling out of balance and paranoid.
Two days after the stabbing, Baker’s mother told police that he had been paranoid, delusional and very concerned about people trespassing on his property for the past 18 months. She told police he used cocaine and fentanyl and had attended treatment centres several times but continued to struggle with addiction.
Two forensic psychiatrists testified at Baker’s hearing in late December. Dr. Shabehram Lohrasbe and Dr. Santoch Rai agreed that Baker was suffering from schizophrenia and had very serious substance use disorders at the time of Allick’s killing.
Thompson accepted Lohrasbe’s conclusion that Baker’s psychotic symptoms were so intense they rendered him incapable of knowing his actions were wrong.
“It is clear from reports from police and hospital staff and accounts from family that, in the months leading up to the event, Mr. Baker was intermittently psychotic with prominent paranoia. For several years, he had believed he would be attacked in his home,” said Thompson.
“I think it is likely true that this terrible event unfolded within seconds. I find that Mr. Baker reacted on impulse, rooted in paranoia, when he stabbed Ms. Allick with little or no opportunity for rational consideration. In the immediacy of the moment, I find his perceptions were distorted and he defaulted to the paranoid thoughts that have long been a feature of his schizophrenia. I am satisfied his mental state was so disordered he could not distinguish right from wrong.”
The judge expressed his sympathy to Allick’s friends and family members who were present in the courtroom.
