Toronto man who killed mom sentenced to life with no parole for 11 years
In April, Superior Court Justice Sean Nakatsuru rejected NCR claim regarding Feb. 26, 2021 fatal stabbing in park
Colin Hatcher has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 11 years for the gruesome murder of an “exceptional woman”: his mother Kathleen.
In April, Nakatsuru rejected Hatcher’s claim that he was not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder and convicted him of second-degree murder. He accepted that the man was suffering from schizophrenia, but found he knew that slashing his mother to death in King’s Mill Park was morally wrong. Still, the judge considered it a mitigating factor in sentencing.
“Your serious mental illness played a very big role in this crime,” Nakatsuru said.
On Feb. 26, 2021, Hatcher’s 69-year-old mother agreed to meet him in the Etobicoke park despite concerns for her safety: the devoted grandmother and quilter who’d recently retired from the Toronto District School Board had spent years trying to get help for her delusional son who’d often threatened to kill her and other family members.
Hatcher told a forensic psychiatrist that during their walk, a voice suddenly commanded him, “Stab her, stab her, stab her.”
His mother sustained seven separate wounds to her head, face and neck and defensive wounds to her hands in the frenzied attack. The “sharp edged instrument” used by her 38-year-old son was never identified or found.
The Crown sought 15 years of parole ineligibility; the defence argued for 10.
Nakatsuru found that due to Hatcher’s severe mental illness, he would set it at the lower end and urged him to become “someone other than the killer that you are” and take his place back in society.
“The path to that is long. And will take work. Every day. Over many months. Indeed, over long years,” Nakatsuru said.