MANDEL: He killed his parents with golf club but blames mental illness

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When Toronto Police kicked down his locked bedroom door, they asked Kyle Sequeira where his parents were.

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“I don’t have any parents,” the 26-year-old replied.

That’s because Sequeira had just brutally killed them both earlier that Labour Day weekend of 2021 – using a Calloway golf club to smash in the head of his mother Lynette Sequeira, 65, and to beat and mutilate his father Francis “Frank” Sequeira, 68, in the master bedroom of their Scarborough home.

And then, after trying to clean the ghastly blood-spattered scene, he covered their bodies and went down to the basement where he listened to music, smoked weed and unsuccessfully begged a “friend with benefits” to pick him up.

“My sureties are dead,” he told her.

His parents had bailed him out twice – first in 2019 after Sequeira was charged with attempted murder for stabbing his friend 13 times in a drunken rage; and then, just days before they were slaughtered, they’d put up $15,000 each to get him released from jail again after he allegedly attacked two police officers.

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There is no one to get him released now.

Sequeira has admitted killing his parents but pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, arguing he’s not criminally responsible due to mental illness. His lawyer says he was suffering from schizophrenia – a diagnosis two prison psychiatrists have given him since his arrest – and voices made him do it.

Prosecutors argue he may have been suffering from an undiagnosed mental illness at the time, but according to Dr. Lisa Ramshaw, it was “reality-based rage” mixed with intoxication – not psychosis – that drove him to massacre his parents.

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In a downtown courtroom Thursday, Sequeira, now 29, sat in the prisoner’s box in a loose white T-shirt and ill-fitting grey pants as the Crown and defence delivered their closing submissions in the judge-alone trial before Justice Anne Molloy where the only issue is whether the killer knew what he was doing was morally wrong.

“We know he’s sick,” insisted defence lawyer Marcus Bornfreund. “He’s been sick for a very long time. He’s been sick for years and there’s been no intervention despite the horrific attempt murder of his friend who is lucky to have survived.”

According to the agreed statement of facts, his friend said that on June 8, 2019, they were asked to leave a pub after sharing five pitchers of beer because Sequeria was allegedly getting into the faces of other customers. When he told him to “chill,” he alleged Sequeria suddenly attacked him with a knife – leaving him with wounds that required 12 hours of emergency surgery.

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His mom, an administrative assistant at the University Health Network, and his dad, a 23-employee at Scarboro Golf and Country Club, pledged $10,000 each to have their son released on strict house arrest. There was relative quiet until August 2021 when Sequeira’s female friend alleged he ripped off her chain and put his hands around her neck.

Sequeira’s mom called the police because she wanted the young woman removed from their home. According to the agreed statement, Sequeira struck both officers and was charged with two counts of assaulting a peace officer, resisting arrest and assault with a weapon.

On Aug. 26, 2021, he was again released into the custody of his parents.

Nine days later, Sequeira killed them.

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Crown attorneys Dimitra Tsagaris and Andrea McPhedran say Sequeira was furious at his parents for calling the police and was stressed by his upcoming court appearance on the attempted murder charge – and that’s why he lashed out.

He said as much to Dr. Derek Pallandi, the psychiatrist hired by the defence.

“It just bothered me so much that they called police,” he told him. “If they wouldn’t have called police, it never would have happened.”

Molloy presided over the sensational Alek Minassian trial where she rejected the van killer’s attempt to claim NCR due to autism. In this case, she told the lawyers that she can’t reach a decision without hearing what the psychiatrists also say about the attempted murder charge that preceded Sequeira’s killing of his parents.

Was that the beginning of a progressive psychosis? Or is he just an angry young man prone to violence, especially when he’s been drinking?

The answer is the difference between a life sentence in prison and a stint in a mental hospital until he’s well.

The hearing is slated to continue in the fall.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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