Testimony comes to a close in Matthew de Grood murder trial

Lawyers for both sides in the Matthew de Grood murder trial were able to wrap up testimony in less than a week, and the case will now move to final submissions on Tuesday morning.

Defence lawyer Allan Fay presented the findings of two psychiatrists and a psychologist, in a bid to have his client found not criminally responsible for murdering five young people on April 15, 2014.

“I’m happy with the way the evidence came out. I think the experts who testified certainly support my position that my client was not criminally responsible at the time these events occurred,” Fay said.

All three doctors ruled it was their belief de Grood had been dealing with a mental disorder.

The last psychologist to testify, Dr. Andrew Haag, said he believes de Grood had been suffering from a rapid case of schizophrenia at the time of the murders.

Fay spent a lot of his time his time asking the experts if they thought the accused might be faking his symptoms.

“I think it’s very important because I believe many members of the public feel the defence of not criminally responsible is a sham or a scam that people use to escape criminal liability,” Fay said. “As you heard from the experts, these things are live in their mind when they do the assessments.”

He referenced Dr. Haag’s comments on how the ruling of not criminally responsible is very rare.

The high-profile Calgary lawyer says this is something he’ll have to deal with for the rest of his life.

If Justice Eric Macklin finds de Grood not criminally responsible, he’ll be held in a secure psychiatric facility until a review board can determine if he’s fit to be released.

Fay says that could be weeks, months, years, or even the rest of his life.

And if he’s found not criminally responsible, it’s still unclear as to whether or not there will be an application to have a “high-risk offender” label applied to him.

“I personally think the evidence is overwhelming,” Fay said. “All the experts have been consistent, they are satisfied and some to a degree of certainty that my client was mentally ill at the time.”

Fay had a hard time emotionally trying to find the words in discussing his admiration for the de Grood family.

“It’s horribly difficult,” he said, tearing up. “So many young lives wiped out in this event, it’s terrible. (The de Groods) are victims, and for anyone to point the finger at them, which just display the ignorance, that personally makes me quite angry. They are amazing people.”

“It would be virtually impossible for anyone to appreciate what was going to happen.”

Crown attorney Neil Wiberg spoke with reporters following Friday’s testimony, and said a trial is always a search for the truth.

“The important thing is that we have the truth come before the court,” Wiberg said. “The important thing is for the truth to come out.”

Wiberg steered clear of discussing what the truth is in his eyes, saying he’ll save that for that for his closing arguments.

“I don’t think (people) will ever get over this. Five outstanding people were murdered. Everyone’s a loser in this particular case and no decision will get around that.”

The Edmonton-based lawyer says he’ll make a decision on the ‘high-risk offender’ application only after the judge’s ruling.

“One has to consider, is he faking,” he said. “That was the purpose of the cross-examination of the experts, to cover every single inch.”

Fay says he didn’t compel his client to testify after seeing the in-depth assessments that were done on his client.