‘Christmas card killer’ takes appeal to Ontario’s highest court
‘You think that time heals, but certain things it just won’t fix,’ neighbour says
KITCHENER — It was a random and unprovoked murder that shocked the community.
On the afternoon of Dec. 15, 2007, Hunter Brown, 74, was delivering Christmas cards to his neighbours on quiet Glenwood Drive in Kitchener when Trevor LaPierre attacked him with a large hunting knife.
Brown, a grandfather and retired Bell Canada manager, was stabbed more than 40 times in the face and head, then left to die while LaPierre — dubbed the “Christmas card killer” — then casually walked away.
The two had never met. LaPierre, 22 at the time, claimed he was driven to kill by the devil.
He at first hoped to be found not criminally responsible of first-degree murder but pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2010 after psychological tests showed he was feigning or exaggerating signs of mental illness.
LaPierre got an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole until Dec. 18, 2024 — 17 years after his arrest.
On Wednesday, an appeal by LaPierre was set to be heard by the province’s highest court, the Ontario Court of Appeal. He apparently wants new evidence admitted on whether he was criminally responsible. A ruling could take months.
Less than a year before the killing, LaPierre wrote a blog that chronicled his decline from an honour roll student at Eastwood Collegiate Institute to a tormented young man.
“Every time I leave my house it’s a constant struggle in the radio frequencies,” he wrote. “Isolate me before I rip your world apart. I am a pained and powerful creature.”
In an interview with police, LaPierre was asked why he attacked Brown.
“Because Satan was telling me he was going to kill me,” he replied. “He was going to kill me if I didn’t kill somebody.”
Two psychiatrists who examined La Pierre concluded he was not mentally ill but an alienated man who blamed society for his failure and lashed out with violence.
But soon after entering prison, LaPierre apparently was diagnosed with schizophrenia by another psychiatrist. Brown is sorely missed.
“He was always the one that was there to help you if you needed help,” neighbour Mary Engelmann said in an interview on Wednesday.
“My kids would go over there with their trikes and he would always take time out to play with them. He treated our kids like they were family.”
News of LaPierre’s appeal brings back terrible memories for Englemann, who went to help Brown immediately after the attack.
“It was very horrific,” Engelmann said. He was so badly injured, “I didn’t know it was him.
“You think that time heals, but certain things it just won’t fix.”