Family says shooting victim had mental health issues
Fatal shooting victim Jonathan Joe Schmeikal struggled with mental health issues throughout his life, something that eventually contributed to his death, family members said Friday.
In victim impact statements read in court and in statements made afterward, Schmeikal’s parents and siblings spoke of his tragic loss.
Brother Patrick said Schmeikal, 34, like so many others with mental health problems, turned to drugs to deal with his demons.
It was that decision which led him to cross paths with Jerry Cody Goodeagle and Dyson White.
“There’s a huge problem with mental issues and the way it’s treated in this city,” Patrick Schmeikal said outside court, minutes after he and other family members presented their court statements.
“What people do is they turn to drugs, because it’s self-medicating,” the sibling said.
“Systems aren’t in place to properly treat people that are struggling and this is just another great example of someone who just slipped through the cracks because they’re struggling with some dark depression, or some sort of mental health problem.”
The sentencing hearing for Goodeagle and White was adjourned to next year, so a report can be prepared on Goodeagle’s Indigenous background.
The report was requested by his lawyer, Karen Molle.
Before adjourning to January to set a sentencing date, Justice Rosemary Nation heard victim impact statements from six members of the Schmeikal family.
Bernard Schmeikal explained his son struggled most of his life with bipolar disorder, schizophrenia and multiple personalities.
“Like a freight train, a once-lively, industrious child full of hopes and dreams suffered a derailment that tortured the rest of his life,” the father told Nation.
He said his son’s health issues caused him to seek solace from those in similar predicaments.
“But in the quest to belong he sought out companions, so-called friends, that often came from a world that suffered in similar ways as he did, in similar despair,” the elder Schmeikal said.
“Street people, bag ladies, even prostitutes left destitute on the side of the road.
“Yes, that was Johnny, never stopping to help in ways he could, and this is what made him special to all of us that touched his life,” he said.
“But not all of John’s friends turned out to be genuine, rather had ulterior motives, are greedy, selfish and in Jonathan’s case turned into killers.”
Both Goodeagle and White entered last-minute guilty pleas last week as their trial before a Calgary jury was about to begin.
Goodeagle pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and White to manslaughter, in the Sept. 30, 2015, shooting death of Schmeikal.
Schmeikal was found in the 2600 block of 43rd Street S.E.
Police said at the time they believed at least two people drove him around in a stolen vehicle before they killed him.
In her victim impact statement, the dead man’s mother talked about the devastating loss she has suffered.
“I am generally a positive person, but this has taken my joy from me,” Henrietta Schmeikal said.
“I just hope I can somehow find it again and be able to think of my son without breaking down and just feeling despair and anguish over what we, and ultimately Jonathan, has lost through a simple, selfish act of uncalled-for violence.”
Both offenders remain in custody pending their sentencing hearing.