Abbotsford man found guilty of stabbing sister to death

A 43-year-old paranoid schizophrenic, who stabbed his sister 13 times with a steak knife and claimed a deity told him it was OK to do, was found guilty of second-degree murder yesterday.

Harmohinder Singh Khosa, 43, was charged in July 2010 but had been challenging the charge saying he was not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.

A final verdict

B.C. Supreme Court judge Miriam Maisonville yesterday ruled Khosa was able to differentiate between legal and illegal actions when he stabbed his sister Amarjit Kaur Khosa in the head and neck in 2010.

Court heard that Harmohinder Khosa told a psychiatrist his sister, also a schizophrenic had “bothered” family members and he “got angry all of a sudden” and attacked her to send her to “a better place.”

His sister’s carotid artery and jugular vein were severed during the attack at the Abbotsford home where she lived with her mother.

The verdict hinged on the voice Khosa claimed he was hearing in his head and the defence’s lack of evidence supporting the mental disorder’s hindrance of his decision-making abilities.

Maisonville said the nature of Khosa’s reported delusion – that the voice was giving him permission to commit an act rather than commanding him to do it – showed he could tell the difference between legal and illegal actions.

Killer influenced by anger and frustration

The judge also said that Khosa had decided to kill his sister based on his anger and frustration with her before the voices in his head had told him that it was OK.

Khosa was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 1996 and has since been treated for the disorder. At trial, a psychiatrist described him as suffering from permissive “religious delusions” featuring the Sikh deity Guru Nanak.

Khosa’s lawyer Brij Mohan said after the trial that his client will appeal.

Sentencing was set for Dec. 20, 2013.

Reported by Brenna Brooks