Judge Convicts Man for Random Toronto Murders

0:00It's April 20th. Welcome in. This is Canada News Today, where local news meets AI. A Toronto judge convicted Richard Edwin of two first-degree murders for randomly shooting two men on downtown streets in April 2022. Despite Edwin claiming voices ordered the killings, Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly ruled Monday that he acted in a rational, methodical, and organized way planned over time. The victims were 21-year-old international student Kartik Vasudev, shot outside Sherborn subway station on his way to work, and 35-year-old Elijah Mahepath, gunned down on a nearby sidewalk two days later as he stepped off a bus. Both attacks happened in broad daylight, captured on video, sending shockwaves to the city. These public killings chilled everyone in Toronto at the time, with families of Vasudev and Mahipath right there in court for the verdict. Everyone agreed Edwin had schizophrenia, but crowned in defense experts split on whether it made him not criminally responsible.

1:04One said, yes, the other, no. Kelly threw out both psychopinions since they leaned on Edwin's own unproven stories about voices threatening bombs on his Caribbean family. Instead, she focused on hard evidence, his web searches, like how to win a gunfight, changing outfits post shootings, a stash of legal guns, and how he kept his apartment straight, road transit, even so conspiracy pamphlets for cash. Edwin stays calm in his arrest video, fully aware of his rights, showing no chaos from psychosis. He faces life in prison, no parole for 25 years on both counts served together, with victim families reading impact statements Tuesday before. Formal sentencing wraps this up.