Closing arguments made in trial for man accused of murdering Winnipeg taxi driver
Closing arguments were made Friday in the case of a Winnipeg man accused of murdering a Duffy’s Taxi driver.
Lawyers for Okoth Obeing, 22, argued their client didn't have conscious control of his thoughts or actions when he killed 44-year-old Balvir Toor during the early morning hours of Mar.19, 2020 in his cab on Burrows Ave.
“This is truly a tragic case,” defence lawyer Alex Steigerwald told the court Friday. “Mr. Toor was an innocent man who lost his life and nothing can bring him back.
But it was not the same Okoth Obeing sitting before you today. It was a severely ill Mr. Obeing who stabbed Mr. Toor.”
In a lengthy interview with Winnipeg Police Service detectives hours after Toor’s death, Obeing admits to the killing.
“That’s the truth, I told you,” Obeing can be heard telling officers in the video which was played in court. “He’s dead. I killed him.”
Obeing lives with bipolar disorder and an intellectual disability which an expert testified left him unable to use thought to control his behaviour when he reached for his knife and stabbed Toor.
The Crown acknowledged he was suffering from a mental illness but told Court of King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey it isn't the only factor in the case.
“When Mr. Obeing got into cab 390 and plunged an eight and a half inch blade into Balvir Toor 17 times, killing him, he was mentally ill…suffering the effects of his bipolar disorder,” Crown attorney Chantal Boutin told the court. “But along with his illness and his eight and a half inch knife with a brass knuckle duster, he also got into Mr. Toor’s cab with his frustrations, his animus and his anger.”
Court has heard Obeing had previous disputes with cab drivers. He acknowledged to police he felt disrespected about being asked for prepayments and that killing Toor was the “best (expletive) feeling in the world.”
“When Mr. Toor disrespected him with yet another demand for an upfront payment that was the last straw," Boutin argued.
Boutin agreed Obeing shouldn't have been discharged from hospital nine days before the stabbing but she argued his actions were intentional and warrant a conviction for second-degree murder.
“Mr. Obeing quieted and told Mr. Toor, ‘just drive bro. Just drive,’” Boutin told Justice McKelvey. “Then he made a deliberate, rational and very conscious choice to get up from in behind the driver’s seat where that plastic shield was.”
He pulled out his knife and asked, ‘how much is it? Five-thousand dollars?’ and stabbed Mr. Toor repeatedly.”
Court has heard Obeing was off his medication at the time and was experiencing an episode of mania which came out in the form of anger and aggression.
The defence argued the evidence has proven he didn't appreciate or understand the physical consequences of his actions and didn’t' have conscious control.
“We ask for a verdict of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder,” Steigerwald told the court.
“It was because of mental illness that this tragedy occurred.”
Justice McKelvey told the court it will take some time to go through the large volume of evidence presented during the trial.
She expects to deliver a decision on Mar.14 at 9 a.m.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
For the first time in report's history, Canada's air quality worse than U.S.
Thanks to wildfires, air quality in Canada is now worse than in the U.S., according to the 6th Annual World Air Quality Report.
A newspaper says video of Prince William and Kate should halt royal rumour mill. That's a tall order
Prince William and his wife Catherine have been filmed at a farm shop near their Windsor home, The Sun newspaper reported -- the first footage of Kate since she had abdominal surgery for an unspecified condition two months ago.
BREAKING Roy McMurtry, former Ontario attorney general, dies at 91
CTV News has confirmed that former Ontario attorney general Roy McMurtry has died.
Hertz CEO out following electric car 'horror show'
The company, which announced in January it was selling 20,000 of the electric vehicles in its fleet, or about a third of the EVs it owned, is now replacing the CEO who helped build up that fleet, giving it the company’s fifth boss in just four years.
'You ask for your money, they disappear': Ontario man loses $17K to AI crypto scam
A Toronto man is spreading the word of a cryptocurrency scam that lures victims using AI-generated news sites after he lost $17,000 in investments.
DEVELOPING Canada's annual inflation rate ticked down to 2.8 per cent in February, defying expectations
Statistics Canada says the annual inflation rate edged down to 2.8 per cent in February.
High thoughts: The habits of Canadian cannabis users are revealed in a new StatCan report
Statistics Canada has conducted a series of surveys to measure the impacts of legalized cannabis since the Cannabis Act took effect in 2018. The latest one, the 2023 National Cannabis Survey, sheds light on users' preferences and habits last year.
Demand soars for solar eclipse glasses in Canada. Are they worth buying?
The demand for total solar eclipse glasses used to safely view the rare celestial event has been ramping up as sellers, along with astronomy and eye-care experts in Canada, warn that viewing the eclipse with the naked eye is dangerous.
Trump says Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and their religion
Former U.S. president Donald Trump on Monday charged that Jews who vote for Democrats 'hate Israel' and hate 'their religion,' igniting a firestorm of criticism from the White House and Jewish leaders.