Hammer attacker not responsible again but faces assessment

A man with severe mental illness who was driven by voices in his head to attack a complete stranger with a hammer on a Centretown street corner has been found not criminally responsible for his actions.

It is the fourth time a judge has determined Jeffrey Weber’s mental illness prevented him from knowing right from wrong or understanding or appreciating the nature of his actions after he committed a serious crime.

Court heard Weber was on his way home from classes at Algonquin College on Dec. 9, 2014, when he got off the bus near the corner of Bank and Somerset streets, went into a grocery store and purchased a hammer and knife.

When Weber emerged from the store, he attacked 55-year-old Nabute Ghebrehiwet suddenly and without provocation from behind, smashing him repeatedly in the head and face with the hammer. A witness described hearing Weber shouting racial epithets during the attack.

The multiple blows caused numerous lacerations and fractures to Ghebrehiwet’s face and resulted in the partial and permanent loss of vision in his left eye.

The attack only ended when a bystander intervened. Weber was arrested three days later after staff from the group home where he was living recognized him from video surveillance released by police.

On Thursday, the judge found Weber not criminally responsible of aggravated assault and possession of a weapon. As a result, Weber will return to secure custody at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre and remain there until the Ontario Review Board makes a disposition within 45 days on how to best treat him.

Weber, 32, had first been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia in 2003. A psychiatrist testified that Weber — who had been living in a home run by Salus on Grove Avenue in Old Ottawa South — was having auditory hallucinations and believed his victim was a “shotcaller” who was linked to Satan and selling people into slavery.

Court heard that Weber had been plagued by hallucinations for years, and that he believed he was the grandson of Adolf Hitler, that non-caucasians were the result of genetic experiments gone wrong, and that aliens were running the world and he could communicate with them.

As a toddler, Weber witnessed his father kill his mother and was later subjected to physical and sexual abuse in foster care, according to Ontario Review Board documents.

Ontario Court Justice Matthew Webber said the treatment plan provided by The Royal likely kept staff at the group home from being able to fully appreciate his worsening symptoms.

Weber had been provided medication he could take when experiencing symptoms, but staff were also advised to “give space,” not be inquisitive and to suggest that Weber “go to a quiet place” when triggered.

The judge also noted Weber’s medication had been changed in the weeks leading up to the assault.