Son off medication at time father killed, murder trial hears
Johnny Dyck Klassen is accused of killing his father, 53-year-old Johan Klassen Sr., just days after Johan reported his son’s mental health emergency to Kerrobert RCMP.
Testifying at Klassen’s seconddegree murder trial, Const. Barry Lennea said Johan called his detachment on Oct 27, 2016 and reported that his son was “freaking out” because he was schizophrenic and not on medication.
Lennea said Klassen agreed to go to the hospital that night. They were told a doctor had previously written Klassen a prescription, but there had been a mix-up in health card information that prevented him from obtaining the medication.
Six days later, Johan was found dead in his Kerrobert apartment suite. Klassen, now 28, was arrested several hours later, after police coaxed him out of a stolen semi he drove into a slough near Luseland.
A Saskatoon Queen’s Bench courtroom heard the initial mental health call involved an argument
over money for cigarettes.
In the video-recorded police statement, which Justice Gerald Allbright allowed as evidence, Klassen said he stomped his father’s head and slashed his throat to “take him out of his misery.”
Saskatchewan’s chief forensic pathologist, Dr. Shaun Ladham, determined Johan died from excessive bleeding caused by the neck wound.
RCMP sent several exhibits for testing and took a sample of Klassen’s DNA for comparison.
On Wednesday, forensic biologist Jason Solinski testified the suspect’s DNA matched the DNA found on a cigarette butt in the farm shop the semi was taken from, as well as the armrest of the semi and a shoe left inside.
The victim’s blood was also found on the shoe, as well as a knife seized from the semi.