NCR killer living in city, board told
Man who fatally hit teen with car during psychotic break staying with father
The man who ran over 17-year-old Nick Hickey while in the throes of a psychotic break is living independently in Ottawa and could be given travel passes to visit other parts of the country, his annual Ontario Review Board hearing heard Thursday.
Guillermo Escobedo-Hoyo was found not criminally responsible for the January 2018 killing and continues to be monitored by the board under a detention order.
Escobedo-Hoyo still poses a risk to public safety and should continue to be subject to that detention order, his doctor told the board Thursday. But he is currently living with his father out of the hospital and in the community.
Escobedo-Hoyo now has freedoms her son will never have again, Hickey's mother Tracy Mellon told the Citizen.
Hickey was walking in his Bells Corners neighbourhood on the night of Jan. 17. It was a coping mechanism for the autistic teen to deal with his anxiety and intense behavioural issues. He walked multiple times a day.
He was on the sidewalk when paralegal Escobedo-Hoyo, who lived just blocks away from the Hickey family home, aimed his car and ran Hickey over in what doctors said was a psychotic break during a bipolar episode that involved smashing his cello at home, ramming his car into a light standard and then killing Hickey. He then reversed the car and hit a truck, stripped naked and smashed the window of an OC Transpo bus with passengers aboard. He went into a senior's home, and demanded a gun. When a neighbour said she was going to call 911, Escobedo-Hoyo told her not to make the call.
An Ottawa police officer found him naked and hiding in a neighbour's parked Jeep.
Ottawa police homicide detectives originally charged the man with second-degree murder.
The criminal court found that Escobedo-Hoyo did not have the state of mind at the time of the killing to appreciate what he was doing, let alone know it was legally or morally wrong.
Those who knew the man have told the Citizen that he was agitated in the days leading up to the collision, and was stressed about his legal status in Canada. His visa expired two months after the killing and he currently has no legal status in Canada. He is originally from Mexico.
The NCR verdict came with mandatory monitoring by the Ontario Review Board, the sole body that can release a person found not criminally responsible from hospital and back into the community. Escobedo-Hoyo lived at The Royal, in the secure forensic unit, after the NCR ruling.
The board heard Thursday that he occasionally goes on bike rides and outings to restaurants with his father, who moved to Ottawa from Mexico, but that has slowed since the pandemic.
His doctor proposed travel passes to add to his detention order. That move was opposed by the Crown prosecutor. A final decision has yet to be made by the review board.
His doctor told the board that Escobedo-Hoyo has contact with a case worker who checks in on him weekly and that he attends The Royal monthly to get injections of his medication. He also attends an outpatient program there and participates in Zoom video sessions. His current immigration status means his medication isn't covered by the government. The hospital is relying on other forms of coverage.
All of his drug tests have come back negative.
While Escobedo-Hoyo previously told doctors who assessed him as not criminally responsible that he wanted to be found NCR to stay in the country, once he began living at The Royal he told doctors he wanted to be deported.
He has since, through understanding that he could have freedoms under a supervision order, expressed wanting to stay in Canada, his doctor said.
He can't be deported as long as he is subject to the supervision of the Ontario Review Board. Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, however, has issued a removal order. Escobedo-Hoyo's immigration lawyer is applying for temporary residence, the board heard.
In an interview with the Citizen, Mellon, Hickey's mother, said she still struggles with finding accountability in the process. She feels the criminal justice system failed her family and that she is now being let down by a process she believes prioritizes her son's killer. Her life has been demolished by the actions of one man on one night.
“Whatever happened in his life, why did it have to affect mine?”
She wonders if she could've been a grandparent, what kind of family Nick would have had, and with all the work he was doing to cope with his daily challenges, if he would be in university now.
In a victim impact statement to the board, she said her children self-harm and struggle with the loss of their brother. She wants Escobedo-Hoyo to take responsibility for killing her son. He chose to stop taking his medication before January 2018, and get behind the wheel, she said. She's left picking up the pieces from those decisions.
In April, her son's killer wrote her a letter. Mellon can't bring herself to read it, but doesn't think his words, read by others, are sincere.
In the handwritten letter, obtained by the Citizen, Escobedo-Hoyo spells her last name incorrectly and repeatedly apologizes for taking her son from her.
“I cannot find the words to express how remorseful I am for having caused this terrible accident,” he wrote.
“I can't even imagine all the pain that I have caused you, but I want you to know that I am terribly sorry for having caused the accident that caused Nicholas' death.”
Escobedo-Hoyo called it a “terrible tragedy” and a “burden” he will live with for the rest of his life. He wrote he was going through a “severe mental health crisis,” something he had never experienced before, and that it scares him to think this could happen again.
“I know I don't deserve your forgiveness, but I hope that some day you can believe me when I express to you how sorry I am.”