Twelve years in prison were handed down on Friday to an autistic and mentally disabled man who was inspired by violent videos to fatally grab a randomly selected cyclist and pedestrian while he was off his medication.
On September 7, 2020, Radoslav Guentchev left his apartment in the family car. He was then furious with his father, who had just reprimanded him over a trivial hygiene issue.
It was then that he began to think about the idea of hitting someone, like in the videos he had already seen on the internet of people randomly grabbing passers-by.
While passing a cyclist on Niagara Street in Brossard, he accelerated and hit him head-on. Then he fled, circling on despite his shattered windshield. Three minutes later he drove straight at a pedestrian walking down Boulevard Pelletier and then continued on his way without slowing down.
The victim, Huiping Ding, died shortly thereafter. Cyclist Gérard Chong Soon Yuen died 13 days later from his injuries. They were completely unknown to the accused and had the misfortune to cross his path at that very moment.
“Explosive”
At the time of this disastrous journey, Radoslav Guentchev had been off his antipsychotic medication for months. This, according to his mother, made him “explosive and aggressive”.
With an autism spectrum disorder, recurrent psychotic disorder and mild intellectual disability, he struggled to manage his emotions and understand social interactions, psychiatrist Louis Morissette said at the Longueuil courthouse on Friday. The drug helps him hold back better.
Initially charged with first degree murder, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of manslaughter on Friday because of his “significant problems”.
“The difficulty for people with an autism spectrum disorder is to clearly see the consequences for others of what they are exposing them to,” added another psychiatrist, Sylvain Faucher.
Afterward, the defendant was “too preoccupied with his anger” and “inspired” by violent videos of people hitting others with their vehicle, but he knew for sure the victims would be in pain.
But he had no intention of killing her, insisted Dr. morissette
” In the [les vidéos], Humans are not dead. But in real life it’s different. His decision was not considered with the mind of a normal person, his judgment was impaired,” he explained.
Other entanglements
The 32-year-old has been acquitted twice in the past on allegations of stalking and making threats.
He then had to receive his medication by injection.
However, in July 2019, the Mental Disorders Commission released him, finding that he was stable and able to take his own medication.
However, he didn’t. And at the end of his sentence, he was again able to refuse to take his medication. But he intends to follow his doctors’ orders, he assured.
regret
“I really apologize very much, I’m sorry and I will take my medication until the end of my life,” he told Supreme Court Justice François Dadour on Friday.
The latter supported the joint proposal by Me Marie-Josée Thériault of the Crown and Rémi Cournoyer-Quintal of the Defense to 12 years imprisonment. Imprisoned since his arrest, he has nearly 9 years left to serve.
The defendant, who held a valid driver’s license at the time of the tragedy, will never be able to drive a motor vehicle again.
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