A Toronto man who stabbed his mother to death at King’s Mill Park and argued he should be found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder has been found guilty of second-degree murder.

Colin Hatcher, who sat in the prisoner’s box, showed no emotion as the verdict was read out.

“Looking at the totality of the evidence, even though I can readily conclude that Mr. Hatcher was mentally ill and unstable at the time of the homicide, I do not find it more likely than not that Mr. Hatcher was incapable of knowing that his actions were morally wrong,” Superior Court Justice Shaun Nakatsuru wrote in his judgment.

The 43-year-old Hatcher was tried by a judge alone in January.

The Crown argued the killing of his mother, Kathleen Boyle Hatcher, was first-degree murder, but the judge told court he was not satisfied that the Crown had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that it was planned and deliberate.

The Crown argued Hatcher had a long-standing delusion that he had a pact with his grandfather to kill his parents.

“We have the ability to look at this tragedy slowly unfolding,” Crown attorney Paul Zambonini said in his closing address.

Nakatsuru wrote that the homicide “is largely unexplained due to the lack of evidence regarding what happened at the key moment.”

“There is evidence that could reasonably support a finding that the killing was committed impulsively without deliberation.”

On Feb. 26, 2021, police received a 911 call from a woman faintly asking for help.

Using GPS tracking, police were able to track the call to King’s Mill Park in the area of Bloor Street and Old Mill Road, where they found the body of Kathleen Boyle Hatcher lying in a pool of blood.

The 69-year-old had been repeatedly stabbed with a sharp instrument and had succumbed to her injuries before help arrived.

Undisputed at trial is the fact that Hatcher killed his mother. The issue the judge had to decide was his mental state at the time he killed her.

Both the Crown and the defence agreed that at the time he killed his mother, Hatcher was suffering from the mental disorder schizophrenia.

Nakatsuru said he did not give much weight to the evidence of a defence forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Derek Pallandi, who interviewed Hatcher.

The judge said Pallandi’s evidence relied on Hatcher’s self-reporting that at the time of the killing, he heard an overwhelming voice say, “Stab her, stab her, stab her.”

He said he lost control and felt he had no choice but to stab his mother.

The judge said Pallanda testified based on Hatcher’s self-report, as he was violently wielding the knife for self-protection, that he did not know what he did was morally wrong.

“‘In law, that’s ‘hearsay.’ Regardless of the other evidence of the serious mental illness he was suffering at the time, the lack of admissible evidence diminishes Dr. Pallandi’s opinion that Colin Hatcher was NCR [not criminally responsible],’” Nakatsuru said in court.

The judge wrote that there is some proof that Hatcher was not in a “normal” state of mind at the time of the killing and was likely suffering from some kind of psychosis. But at the time of the killing, there was no proof as to what was going through his mind.

At trial, court heard that Hatcher had previously threatened to kill his parents.

During March break in 2018, Hatcher and Boyle went on a pleasant mother-and-son trip to Niagara Falls. They stopped at an outlet mall on the way home for a coffee.

Hatcher told Boyle he wanted to return to Niagara Falls to go to the duty-free shop.

Hatcher then told his mother nonchalantly that he had agreed with his grandfather in the past that he would work as a chef for 10 years and then throw his mother over Niagara Falls. Hatcher also believed there would be no criminal consequences for killing his parents.

He told his mother she knew about the plan.

“It hardly needs to be said that the grandfather, a retired schoolteacher would not have made such an agreement,” wrote the judge.

After the Niagara Falls trip, on March 17, 2018, Hatcher dropped by his father’s girlfriend’s workplace.

Hatcher had no relationship with the girlfriend and told her of his plan to kill his father, Tom Hatcher, that he said was put in place by his grandfather, who was then deceased.

Hatcher asked for the girlfriend’s help in executing the plan and believed the girlfriend knew of the plan and agreed with it. Hatcher had had little contact with his father for several years.

Laura Hatcher, Colin’s sister, testified that her brother had repeatedly articulated this grandfather-initiated plan to kill their father and mother.

She said her brother believed that everyone in the family knew of the plans and agreed it had to be done.

On March 27, 2018, Hatcher was brought into St. Joseph’s Hospital involuntarily under a Form 2 under the Mental Health Act.

Laura Hatcher testified that he blamed his parents for doing this.

While in the psychiatric ward, from March to April 2018, Hatcher told the psychiatrist about this pact made with his grandfather at a family meeting with his parents and siblings present.

While involuntarily committed, the psychiatrist found Hatcher legally incapable of making treatment decisions due to his lack of insight into his delusional beliefs and appointed his father as substitute decision maker.

An anti-psychotic medication was prescribed for Hatcher and he was discharged from hospital after a stay of just over two weeks.

Hatcher told the psychiatrist he was no longer sure about the pact with his grandfather and denied any harm to his parents.

The doctor noted an improvement in his mental health status with medication and a softening of his delusional system, though his insights remained low.

“It was difficult for her to estimate his level of risk, but [the doctor] advised the parents to take precautions in the future to protect themselves,” Nakatsuru wrote in his judgment.

The family was concerned that the discharge was too early.

Laura Hatcher testified that Hatcher’s delusions continued, and by October and November 2019, she was concerned about whether he was still taking his medications.

In January 2020, Hatcher changed his family physician and told his new doctor he wanted to discontinue his anti-psychotic medication.

The doctor testified at trial that while he was concerned about whether it was in Hatcher’s best interest, he ultimately agreed to do so.

The doctor testified that he worried that if he did not agree, Hatcher would leave the medical clinic and would be left unmonitored by a physician.

Laura Hatcher testified about the lengthy emails her mother wrote to her son’s family doctor, concerned about his mental illness, after he left a concerning voicemail on Boyle Hatcher’s work voicemail.

She told Hatcher’s family physician about her son’s erratic behaviour.

Despite this, the doctor weaned Hatcher off his anti-psychotic by May 2020.

Hatcher told the doctor he was doing fine and said he wanted his father removed as his substitute decision maker.

After his arrest for murder, a bag of anti-psychotic medication was found in Hatcher’s apartment.

The judge made a factual finding that Hatcher was not taking his medication even when it was prescribed by his family physician.

Less than two months before the murder, Hatcher called his mother from the lobby of her residence. He told her he wanted to take her for a walk.

Laura Hatcher advised her mother to take safety precautions if she met up with her brother and to do it in a public place.

Boyle Hatcher went for a walk with her son on Jan. 10, 2021 but according to her notes, he was acting paranoid and gave her a note in which he wrote he wanted to install a camera in his apartment.

After his arrest, police found an operating security camera in Hatcher’s apartment pointing at the front door.

In the next few weeks, Hatcher visited his family doctor and raised concerns about being drugged or poisoned. The doctor believed this was delusional thinking and ordered further testing.

Hatcher’s girlfriend also testified about his strange behaviour.

Hatcher emailed the family physician and set out her belief that her son was paranoid and delusional.

Just one month before the murder, the family doctor testified he believed that Hatcher needed to go back on anti-psychotic medication as he was having a mental health crisis.

“However, though Mr. Hatcher showed no insight into his illness, in the doctor’s opinion, he did not seem to be a threat to the community or himself,” Nakatsuru wrote.

After court, Boyle Hatcher’s brother-in-law and one of her oldest friends expressed mixed sentiments about the second-degree murder verdict, suggesting they hope Hatcher can get the help he needs in prison for his mental illness.

They say the system failed Hatcher, given there were many red flags that were ignored.

A sentencing hearing has been scheduled for June 16. Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence.

The judge must decide on a period of parole ineligibility between 10 and 25 years.