‘My mother mattered’: Sentence pending for St. John’s man who killed his nan during ‘combat seizure’
Brandon Tobin is one of three males awaiting sentencing in separate cases before NL courts for killing their grandmother
Brandon Tobin’s sentencing hearing in St. John’s Thursday, March 19, 2026, marked the third case of a grandson killing their nan that courts in Newfoundland and Labrador have seen this week.
All three males — Tobin, 35-year-old Justin Campbell of Deer Lake, and a youth from Mount Pearl who can’t be named — have each been convicted and are awaiting sentencing on the separate incidents, but Tobin is the only one who isn’t charged with first-degree murder.
He’s instead charged with manslaughter, and on Thursday, his lawyer and the Crown made its submissions in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court on the amount of jail time he should receive.
Tobin, now 30, attacked his 82-year-old grandmother, Millie Brake, at her home on Mitchell Court the night of March 16, 2022, shortly after she returned from a St. Patrick’s Day dance.
‘You hurt Nan’
Brake called her daughter — Tobin’s mother — at about 10:35 p.m., telling her Tobin was having a seizure; something that had become common after a motor vehicle accident he suffered a year earlier, and was exacerbated by drug use.
Police later learned from Tobin’s family that he had been experiencing “combat seizures,” displaying violent tendencies.
Brake’s daughter arrived 10 minutes later to find Tobin gone and Brake seriously injured on a bedroom floor. She called 911.
The audio of that harrowing phone call was played aloud in court last November, when Tobin pleaded guilty to manslaughter by criminal negligence.
“My son had a seizure, a combat seizure, he’s after attacking my mom,” Brake’s daughter said on the phone.
As Tobin came home, she is heard on the recording telling him, “You hurt Nan… You must have hurt her, Brandon. You had a seizure, honey. I got an ambulance called.”
Paramedics and police arrived, and Brake was declared dead just after 11:30 p.m.
As Royal Newfoundland Constabulary officers arrested Tobin and took him to the hospital, he said, “It can’t be homicide, I don’t remember. My f***ing Nan. I don’t remember. I had seizures for the past month since my accident. I can’t remember.”
Tobin told doctors he had been using drugs that evening, and said he had previously assaulted his girlfriend in a similar post-seizure state.
His bloodwork revealed the presence of cocaine, marijuana, morphine, methadone, benzodiazepam, barbiturates and oxycodone, as well as an anti-seizure medication.
An autopsy indicated Brake had died of blunt force trauma. She had multiple broken ribs attributed to stomping or kneeing motions on her chest.
‘My mother mattered’
“We live with constant grief, shock and an overwhelming sense of loss,” Brake’s other daughter, Annette Fallon, wrote in a victim impact statement presented to the court Thursday. “She was the centre of our world, and there is a huge void where she once was.”
Brake was hard-working, kind, protective and loving, Fallon wrote, saying her mother had many friends and a large family, who knew her home as one of comfort and love.
Fallon recalled her last phone call with Brake, at lunchtime on the day she died. Brake told her she was going to the dance with friends; Fallon later heard her mother never left the dance floor the entire night.
“Our family will never return to what it was before this tragedy. Nothing can undo what was taken from us. My mother deserved to be alive, safe and still part of our lives, and her absence has left lasting emotional wounds that may never heal
“Our family carries this loss together, and it has permanently altered our sense of safety, joy and connection. My mother mattered.”
‘What happened was foreseeable and it was preventable’: Crown
The Crown is seeking a six-year jail sentence for Tobin, minus 609 days remand credit, noting he has a criminal record with violent offences for which he had previously been sentenced to roughly five years, combined.
His record also includes convictions related to drugs and weapons police seized from Brake’s home as part of the investigation into her death.Tobin was well aware that he experienced combat seizures after using drugs but kept doing it anyway, Crown attorney Kathleen O’Reilly submitted.
“What happened was foreseeable and it was preventable,” the prosecutor argued.
She noted Tobin has been assessed at a very high risk to commit more crimes, and, despite his participation in rehabilitative programs since he’s been incarcerated, has acquired a serious disciplinary record in prison and shown a pattern of relapse when he’s out.
“His efforts at rehabilitation do not appear at any point to have been successful or pursued successfully outside of the prison environment,” O’Reilly said.
Defence seeks three to four years, minus remand
Defence lawyer Mark Gruchy stressed that Tobin has pleaded guilty to manslaughter by criminal negligence for doing drugs despite knowing it induced combat seizures, and had no intention to harm his grandmother.
“It doesn’t make (Brake’s) death any less real or tragic,” Gruchy added.
Tobin’s record of violent crimes is less relevant in that context, he argued, but he acknowledged the criminal record is still a factor to be considered.
“I know Brandon Tobin’s record,” the defence lawyer said. “I’m not going to ask for something as foolish as nine months. I’m going to suggest to the court that in light of the fact that he has that record, in light of this horrible tragedy, in light of the very strange nature of these facts and this unusual situation, an appropriate range for the court to consider would be three to four years incarceration.”
Gruchy submitted several letters of support from people involved in Tobin’s rehabilitation while in prison, and told the court he believes Tobin genuinely wants to overcome his drug addiction.
People don’t perfect themselves overnight when they’ve had the life Tobin has, Gruchy said.
“If anything can happen to a person worse to encourage them to no longer want to be a drug addict, I can’t think of what it would be,” Gruchy said. “I believe he is sincerely moved.”
‘I love her and miss her,’ accused tells court
Tobin addressed the court at the end of the hearing.
“The loss of my grandmother has affected myself and my family in a way that is hard to put into words,” he said. “She meant the world to all of us, and I would do anything to hug her and tell her how much I love her and miss her.
“I truly am sorry for this tragedy.”
Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court Justice Peter Flaherty will deliver his sentencing decision April 30.