A Red Deer man who killed a woman in October 2016 knew it was wrong despite his psychotic delusions and should be convicted of second-degree murder, said a Crown prosecutor on Thursday.
Dominique Mathurin said Jordan Koizumi readily admitted to police after his arrest that he stabbed Tina-Marie Pfeiffer to death. He blamed her for using him and for kicking him out of her house and that he felt “avenged” by her death.
At one point during his post-arrest ramblings, which were captured on audio tape and played for the court earlier in the trial, Koizumi says, “God, am I innocent? God, I killed someone.”
Mathurin said those and other statements “suggests there was a moral compass at the time of the action,” referring to the gruesome killing in the early morning hours of Oct. 27, 2016 in Pfeiffer’s West Park home.
Pfeiffer was stabbed 58 times in the right arm, head and torso and was found dead in her bedroom. Koizumi, 27, was picked up by police soon after, wandering the streets in his underwear.
Even if he was under delusions, he knew the delusions were morally wrong, said the Crown prosecutor, in closing arguments.
There is no disagreement that Koizumi killed Pfeiffer. What Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Adam Germain must decide is whether Koizumi, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, should be held criminally responsible for Pfeiffer’s death.
Defence lawyer Patrick Edgerton said the medical evidence clearly shows Koizumi was suffering from “command hallucinations” and “acute psychosis” at the time of the murder.
Edgerton noted that Dr. Yuri Metelitsa, a criminal forensic psychiatrist who examined Koizumi, said he did not “appreciate the nature and quality of his acts.”
Dr. Metelitsa told the judge on Wednesday that Koizumi did not consider the rightness or wrongness of his actions because of his mental illness and should not be held criminally responsible. The psychiatrist said because of his psychosis Koizumi could be a threat and recommended he be ordered into psychiatric treatment rather than prison.
Koizumi had a long history of mental illness dating back to at least 2009. He was in and out of hospitals and treatment programs and was first diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2013.
When on medication, his condition improved considerably but he had stopped taking his medications in 2015 and his mental health continued a downward slide.
On the night before the murders, he turned up at Red Deer Regional Hospital Centre claiming Pfeiffer was communicating with him telepathically. He was escorted off the property loudly protesting that he should not be discharged.
He later went back to the home where he was subletting a room from Pfeiffer, but from which he was being evicted, and killed her in the early morning hours.
After his arrest, he made bizarre comments to police, claiming his victim had been trying to steal his sperm and asked if they wanted him to drink his victim’s blood. At one point, he appeared to be carrying on a conversation with his absent mother.
Koizumi underwent an intensive psychiatric assessment in Calgary from Nov. 4, 2016 to Dec. 20.
Metelitsa testified that Koizumi showed no emotional feelings at all to his terrible crime or the prospects of prison. “He was completely flat.”
Justice Germain said he will deliver his judgment on Friday morning.
pcowley@reddeeradvocate.com
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