Thomas Chan murder trial begins with testimony by mother, sister
Man had taken magic mushrooms prior to attack that killed dad
At 3:18 a.m. on Dec. 28, 2015, Rosalia Vastano was awoken when her bedroom light flicked on.
Her son, Thomas Chan, was chatty and wanted to talk. She asked him what he was on.
“This was not normal behaviour,” she testified.
“It was not something I had seen before.”
Vastano was one of three Crown witnesses to take the stand at her son’s second-degree murder, attempted murder and aggravated assault trial, which began Monday in Superior Court of Justice.
The 21-year-old was charged by Peterborough police after his father gastroenterologist Dr. Andrew Chan was found stabbed to death in his Haggis Drive home.
Dr. Chan’s partner Lynn Witteveen suffered multiple stab wounds and was airlifted to a Toronto hospital in critical condition. She would survive the attack.
Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Midwood opened the prosecution’s case by telling the court Chan wilfully took magic mushrooms to alter his perception of reality but was still in control when he went to his father’s home.
“He intended to kill. He did kill,” Midwood said in his opening remarks. He is being aided in the prosecution by Crown attorney Frank Schwalm.
Chan’s older sister Christina Chan, 23,was the first witness to take the stand Monday.
On Dec. 27 at about 11:30 p.m., she went to bed and stayed awake on her phone until around 1 a.m. , she testified he was awoken at around 3 a.m. when she heard raised voices from downstairs. Those voices became closer and closer, she testified. She left her room to see what the commotion was, and found her brother and mother standing on the landing atop the stairs.
“He was shouting at us that we are the devil,” she recalled, explaining he was raising the phone with his light pointing at them.
“He seemed frantic and frightened.”
Vastano, the Crown’s second witness, also testified her son called them the devil and Satan. Both told the court that Chan said he was going to his father’s house.
“I am blocking the doorway and he had to push us out of the way,” Vastano explained.
In only her housecoat, Chan’s mother chased after her son down the street with a coat in hand for her shirtless son. Dr. Chan’s home was only a couple blocks away and, at most, a fiveminute walk.
The mother and daughter later went to Dr. Chan’s house.
“I saw broken glass inside the house,” Vastano testified.
“I hear shouting inside.”
She ran back to the car and Christina called 911.
“My brother is being ridiculously aggressive right now. He broke someone’s window with a rock. He ate mushrooms at 8 o’clock tonight. He broke into my dad’s house,” she calmly told the dispatcher.
The 911 operator responded by telling Christina that someone had just called from the home and said she was stabbed.
Evidence will continue in front of Justice Cary Boswell Tuesday.