Defence to focus case on accused’s mental health

The attempted murder trial of a Calgary man accused in the random stabbings of a city woman and her six-year-old son will focus on his mental health.

Defence lawyer Andrea Urquhart told court Friday that John Garang Luka Yag ’s two-week trial beginning Nov. 23 will centre on whether he was not criminally responsible by reason of a mental disorder at the time of the Oct. 6, 2017, attacks.

Yag, 23, faces two charges of attempted murder in connection with an incident in the city ’s northwest in which a woman and her son were stabbed.

Urquhart told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Robert Hall counsel have “received the necessary reports” to conduct a trial on whether Yag did not know what he was doing was wrong, or didn’t appreciate the nature and quality of his actions.

An initial assessment of the accused conducted by psychiatrist Dr. Ken Hashman at Calgary’s Southern Alberta Forensic Psychiatry Centre following his arrest found Yag did not meet the requirement for such a defence.

But last November, Urquhart asked that her client be sent to Alberta Hospital in Edmonton for a second assessment of his mental state at the time of the attacks.

The results of that testing have not been made public.

Both victims were hospitalized initially in critical condition before their conditions were upgraded to stable after each suffered multiple stab wounds.

The mother and child were apparently out for an evening walk when attacked in a green space near Berwick Drive and Bearberry Crescent N.W.

Yag remains in custody pending trial.