Ahmed Al Farkh has spent the last five years at Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care awaiting trial after being charged with murdering his roommate Nathaniel Brettell.
A forensic psychiatrist who assessed the 39-year-old told court Tuesday that when he was arrested on Feb. 2, 2021, he was taken to the Toronto South Detention Centre but only lasted one month because he was “so mentally ill he had to be transferred to Waypoint.”
Al Farkh, who admitted to the manslaughter of 58-year-old Brettell at the outset of his second-degree murder trial, has been assessed to determine if he qualifies for the defence of not criminally responsible (NCR).
According to an agreed statement of facts, during the first appearance at his preliminary hearing in December 2022, Al Farkh, who likes to be called by his first named “Ahmed,” refused to attend court in person, appearing via video from Waypoint.
The facts state Al Farkh, who fired his lawyer and was being represented by an amicus, told the court, “I killed him. I killed him fine. It was because of the medication,” before saying “I don’t want to participate in this. I’m done.” The proceedings then ended early.
On Tuesday, Al Farkh sat in the prisoner’s box in the downtown courtroom, listening intently as the forensic psychiatrist, Dr. Alina Iosif, who interviewed him at Waypoint this past January, summarized her findings.
Iosif testified that when she met with him, he was on three anti-psychotics and a mood stabilizing medication and still “continued to display symptoms of psychosis and disorganization.”
“Can you give me an example?” Al Farkh suddenly blurted out. Al Farkh’s current lawyer, Dean Embry, then stood up, quietly whispered to Al Farkh and Embry told Crown prosecutor Brady Donohue to continue.
Iosif said Al Farkh told her he perceived his roommate as someone who was aggressive towards him and explained that he was angry. wanted to hurt someone and noticed Brettell’s door was open.
“I had the knife with me. I stabbed him twice in the shoulder, slit his throat then put him in the trash because he was not worthy, he was puny and he was not righteous. I would have his spirit in case I get killed myself like the solar reaper,” Al Farkh told Iosif during their meeting.
According to an agreed statement of facts read into the record when Al Farkh admitted to the killing, Al Farkh and Brettell, who suffered from autism spectrum disorder, lived on the main floor of a rooming house for people with mental health issues at 23 Westona St.
A friend of Brettell noticed that in January 2021, he was not in touch as he normally would be. Brettell was also a diabetic and relied on medication to treat his diabetes.
On Feb. 1, 2021, police were dispatched to check on Brettell’s well-being after the friend reported him missing. The friend said she spoke with Brettell on Jan. 14 and texted with him on Jan. 20. She had not heard from him since the 21st, which was unusual.
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Police attended the Winona Street address that day and couldn’t locate Brettell but found his mattress covered in blood, blood in the hallway and garbage bins outside the house. His diabetes medication was in the home. Officers noticed that Brettell’s door was unlocked and the door was ajar. The centre part of the door appeared to have damage.
While not visible to the naked eye, further police investigation revealed blood in a shared washroom. Jeans and a bloody towel were also seized from Al Farkh’s laundry hamper.
According to the facts, police had been called to the Westona Street address before. On Jan. 3, 2021, Al Farkh called police, who reported he was upset with Brettell.
“He complained about cleanliness, and dishes, and what he described as Nathaniel’s failure to ‘maintain personal space,’” the facts state.
On Jan. 6, 2021, Al Farkh called police again and reported that Brettell was acting “aggressively.” Specifically, he was banging on Al Farkh’s door.
The landlord at the Westona address told police that garbage pickup was every second Friday and he usually took the bins to the curb. On Thursday, Jan. 28, the landlord went to the address to take the bins to the road but the garbage was already on the curb.
The facts state the landlord recalled that the garbage looked “pretty full” and specifically observed the lid on the bin seemed ajar, but did not look in. He also observed that Al Farkh’s windows were open, which was unusual.
Police asked the two tenants in the basement of the rooming house if they took the garbage out on Jan. 28, which they denied.
Police carried out a large-scale effort to locate Brettell. As part of the investigation, the garbage bin outside the Westona address was seized.
The can, capable of holding a person, had blood inside. Testing on the blood in the garbage was compared to DNA provided by the family of Brettell. The results indicated it was Brettell’s blood.
A doorbell camera on the street captured a dark figure dragging something large and white down the stairs at the Westona address on Jan. 27, 2021. The camera also captured the sound of garbage bins opening and closing. The figure was outside for eight minutes. The bin was picked up on Jan. 29 by a Miller Waste garbage truck.
Waste goes to two places once collected: 120 Disco Rd., and after that, a landfill outside Toronto. Eighty-one police officers and three dogs searched 250 tonnes of waste at Disco Road in Toronto but did not locate Brettell.
On Aug. 26 and 28, after a meticulous search of the Greenlane Landfill in Southwold, Ont., partial remains belonging to Brettell were found.
A pathologist at the Centre for Forensic Sciences who examined Brettell’s remains observed that his body was badly damaged.
“It was clear he sustained several crushing injuries as a result of the disposal process,” the facts state. The pathologist wrote in his report that there were no positive findings to suggest intentional dismemberment. He did observe sharp force injuries including stab wounds to his upper back and chest.
The facts state Al Farkh, who receives monthly injections to treat bi-polar disorder, was given an injectable anti-psychotic medication on Jan. 20, 2021, after walking into the Humber River Hospital.
Al Farkh was “visibly angry” and “very tense” and did not respond to questions when asked.
“When asked about his mood, he said he was mad about the necklace being worn by medical staff,” the facts state.
On Feb. 2, 2021, while searching for Brettell, officers returned to the Westona address to speak to Al Farkh.
As four TPS officers were standing in the hallway on the main floor. Al Farkh exited his room, carrying a butcher knife and charged towards the officers.
One of the officers suffered a 10-inch deep stab wound to his left shoulder. Another officer suffered a large gash an inch away from one of his eyes, as well as a stab wound to his elbow. Both officers required internal and external stitches. After the struggle, officers gained control of Al Farkh and he was arrested.
Police body camera footage shown in court captured the violent and bloody struggle. Video shown in court captured Al Farkh walking into the booking hall wearing a medical gown and mask, after being treated in hospital.
A uniformed officer tells the booking officer that Al Farkh is charged with two counts of aggravated assault and says he’s autistic and bipolar. Al Farkh corrects the officer and says he’s not autistic, only bipolar. He also says he had been given an injection in hospital on Jan. 22.
The booking officer asks Al Farkh if the injection he takes is related to the bipolar diagnosis. Al Farkh responds, “That’s not why I take it. I take it because it makes me strong.” When the officer asks if he wants a lawyer, Al Farkh says he wants to represent himself.
A police interview done later that day was also played in court. Iosif said that interview was helpful in assessing Al Farkh’s given there is an absence of information about how he was doing between Jan. 21, when he received his injection and Feb. 1, when police arrived at the Winona address to inquire about Brettell’s whereabouts.
Iosif, who opined that Al Farkh suffers from either schizoaffective disorder or schizophrenia, told her a number of times that he does not want to be found NCR.
“I’m willing to take medications but I don’t want to be NCR,” Al Farkh said. “I want to go to the community, contribute and pay taxes, not like Trump.”
Iosif said she supports an NCR finding from a psychiatric perspective, considering all the evidence in conjunction with his self-reporting.
She noted that on the day he attended Humber River Hospital to get his injection, nurses found him to be unkempt, volatile and aggressive while a psychiatrist found him to be kempt and organized.
“It’s another confounding factor. We don’t know when the victim was killed. It’s difficult to opine upon whether he was so impacted by his major mental illness. He had psychosis symptoms, but they were significantly controlled. He was in the community and able to attend outpatient psychiatric care,” said Iosif.
She noted the way Al Farkh attacked officers on the day of his arrest and called his appearance after his arrest “very bizarre and disorganized.”
A video of his police interview was also played in court. Iosif said the way he curled up naked on a table when officers leave is a “behavioral dysregulation.” Iosif testified she believes he was suffering from psychosis at the time.
The trial continues next week.