‘THERE WAS FEAR’
I came back to earth that second he looked at me. We made eye contact — my knife was still in him: Luka Gordic’s killer
A young man who fatally stabbed a Burnaby teen during a swarming attack in Whistler recently described the murder as being almost a religious experience for him, a prosecutor said Wednesday.
The bizarre description was revealed for the first time in court as the Crown sought to have the accused, who was 17 at the time of the May 2015 attack on Luka Gordic, 19, and cannot be identified due to a publication ban, sentenced as an adult rather than as a youth.
Crown counsel Julie Robinson told B.C. Supreme Court Judge Terence Schultes that in a report filed in December, a psychiatrist said that the accused, one of four young men convicted in the attack, “very solemnly” described the moment when he looked at the victim.
“I recall looking at him in the eye,” the accused, who was convicted of second-degree murder, told the psychiatrist. “There was fear, and in an instant my life got brighter — everything around me. Whoa, I’m on earth right now. I felt woke. That God just slapped me right in the face.
“Something super, powerful, gave me a punch right in the heart, an electric shock of clarity. I came back to earth that second he looked at me. We made eye contact — my knife was still in him.”
Robinson told the judge there was much that could be said about the disturbing description of the taking of the life of Gordic.
“It must once again be noted that this is at complete odds with his trial testimony,” she said, noting that during the trial the accused claimed he remembered nothing about the key events. “However, he would now have this court believe that he essentially came to at the moment he stabbed Luka Gordic in the heart. (The accused) describes the moment of the murder almost like a religious experience, an encounter with God.”
Members of the victim’s family reacted visibly, several leaving the courtroom as the accused’s quotes from the psychiatrist’s report were being read out by Robinson.
Earlier, the prosecutor argued the circumstances of the case rebutted the presumption that as a youth the accused had a diminished capacity for moral judgments. She said that at the time of the murder the accused was only a few weeks away from turning 18, the age at which the accused would be an adult and subject to a stiffer sentence.
The factors that need to be considered in raising a youth to be sentenced as an adult include the age and maturity of the accused, the degree of participation in the crime, the harm done and any prior findings of guilt, Robinson said.
Although the accused did test quite low in some cognitive tests, there was no overarching concern about mental or cognitive impairment, she said.
The Crown said that the accused, who was born in Saudi Arabia and came to Canada with his family in 2008, began abusing drugs at a young age and became enmeshed in a criminal lifestyle, dropping out of school in the middle of Grade 10.
The accused’s admitted crimes began at the age of 13 when he started selling drugs and progressed to robberies, Robinson said.
If he is sentenced as a young offender, the accused will face a sentence of no more than four years in custody. If sentenced as an adult, he’ll receive a life sentence with no parole eligibility for seven years.
The Crown is seeking two co-accused, who were convicted of manslaughter, to also be sentenced as adults. Arvin Golic, a fourth accused, was sentenced to seven years in prison for manslaughter.
Gordic was swarmed and fatally attacked following a petty dispute between Golic and Gordic.
Outside court Wednesday, the parents of the victim were shocked by the description of the attack.
“I never heard that before,” said Mitch Gordic, the victim’s father. “I just can’t believe there are people like that, that can do that kind of thing. A knife in Luka’s heart and he’s looking at him. It’s hard to believe.”
Said Clara Gordic, the victim’s mother: “I’m speechless. We’re just so devastated. I can’t believe what Luka was going through. It just kills me.”