Brentwood mass murderer Matthew de Grood has been found not criminally responsible for stabbing five young people to death in 2014, but the Crown is considering seeking a new, tougher designation for the 24-year-old.
On Wednesday, Justice Eric Macklin found de Grood not criminally responsible for the stabbing deaths of Joshua Hunter, Lawrence Hong, Zackariah Rathwell, Kaiti Perras and Jordan Segura during a house party in Brentwood in April 2014.
Crown prosecutor Neil Wiberg says he will be pursuing a high risk NCR designation, which would impose more regulations onto the release of individuals such as de Grood.
Under the designation, the review period would be extended to every three years instead of every year and the court would be involved in any future release.
“If the Review Board is considering an absolute discharge or conditional discharge into the community, then that would have to go before a judge," Wiberg said.
Wiberg said that there will have to be other types of evidence that will need to be presented before such a designation is imposed and that information will be analyzed once de Grood has his first review in 90 days.
The families of the victims say they are “100 percent behind” the Crown’s motion to apply for a high risk NCR designation.
Gregg Perras, the father of Kaiti, said that de Grood is an example of someone the designation was made for.
"If anyone would fall under that definition, someone who kills five people and falls into psychosis in a matter of weeks, that's likely someone who should fall under that designation," Perras said.
Wiberg also said that the crimes de Grood committed are the worst that a person can commit, especially when he did it without the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Defence lawyer Allan Fay said that he hopes the designation won’t be required once the first review occurs in August.
"My hope and my belief is that when the Review Board sees him in 90 days, it will be clear that that's not a necessary step."
He has hopes that de Grood will be successfully reintegrated into society. "I hope that there will be a gradual reintegration into society, but if they don't reach that conclusion he could spend the rest of his life in custody."
There is also a concern that the high risk NCR law wouldn’t apply to the case at all, given that it came into force after the stabbings took place.
De Grood is being held at the Southern Alberta Psychiatric Centre. There are no details on what his treatment will be.
