Man accused, break-in, stabbing seeking bail
Asouthern Alberta man accused of breaking into a home earlier this month and stabbing a resident while he slept wants to be released on bail. The Crown, however, wants the accused, Josh Lee Goodrider, to remain in custody and be sent to Calgary for a psychological assessment.
Duty counsel lawyer Richard Dalby told court Thursday, Legal Aid has not yet appointed a lawyer for Goodrider, and he remains in custody without having the benefit of a bail hearing.
Crown prosecutor Bruce Ainscough said he is prepared to run a bail hearing, but he also wants the judge to hear his application for a forensic assessment to determine whether Goodrider is unfit to stand trial, or if he was, at the time of the commission of the alleged offence, suffering from a mental disorder that could exempt him from criminal responsibility.
Judge Gregory Maxwell said he won’t grant an assessment order just on the Crown’s recommendation without some evidence to support the application.
Ainscough said an RCMP officer would be able to provide evidence to support the assessment application, but he was unavailable Thursday. Ainscough hoped he would be able to testify today, when Maxwell ordered the matter be brought back into court to determine the next step.
Ainscough first recommended the assessment May 6, and said the accused told police during his arrest a few days earlier that the world was ending, the sun is expanding and the planets are going to be destroyed. He accused the victim of killing his people, and claimed he was only trying to help because people keep slaughtering each other.
He told police he is nature; he was in the First World War and had been killed many times; time travel is real; don’t trust Google because it controls people; people are ghosts and ghosts were trying to get in the victim’s home and he wanted to stop them.
During Thursday’s hearing, Dalby acknowledged concerns about Goodrider’s ability to instruct counsel. He said the accused understands he suffers from psychosis when he is off his medication, but since being in custody and receiving medication, he’s doing well.
Goodrider is accused of randomly entering a home along Highway 5 east of Cardston about 5:30 a.m. May 2 and stabbing a sleeping man in the head and chest. The victim ran to his truck and drove to the end of his driveway, where he stopped and called 911. He was taken to the Cardston Hospital and treated for nonlife-threatening injuries.
Goodrider, who appeared in court by closed-circuit TV from the Calgary
Remand Centre, apologized to the judge.
“I’m truly sorry for what I’ve done,” he said.
Court was told Goodrider was not taking steps to contact Legal Aid for a lawyer, and during a hearing May 8 a judge ordered Legal Aid to appoint a lawyer. As of Thursday's hearing, no one had been appointed.
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