Mental illness cited in trial of woman accused of killing mom

A Surrey woman on trial for her mother’s murder should be found not criminally responsible because she is mentally ill, her lawyer has told a B.C. Supreme Court judge in New Westminster.

Gloria Zerbinos, 30, is being tried for second-degree murder in the Nov. 8, 2012, death of Panagiota “Yota” Zerbinos, 43, who was stabbed 24 times.

Defence lawyer John Gustafson told Justice Fritz Verhoeven that the accused should be found not criminally responsible for her mother’s death. The victim’s body was found lying on the living room floor of her daughter’s basement suite in the Fleetwood area of Surrey with a kitchen knife stuck in her chest.

Verhoeven has heard that the victim was afraid to be alone with her daughter in the months leading up to her death.

Court was told the accused had assaulted her mother on more than one occasion before the homicide.

Gloria Zerbinos was arrested in Vancouver on Nov. 10, 2012, inside the No. 5 Orange strip club, where she’d worked as a dancer about a year and a half earlier under the stage name “Naudia Nice.”

The court heard that during her statement to police she said she believed her mom was involved in a conspiracy to chloroform her and pimp her out.

Zerbinos also inquired if there was anything “top secret” in her police file, the court heard.

Psychiatrist Todd Tomita diagnosed Zerbinos with mixed personality disorder, with histrionic and anti-social traits. She also has “features” that can be construed as narcissistic, he added under cross-examination.

The court heard that while in custody, Zerbinos claimed an undercover cop was “trying to get rid of her,” that guards at the correctional centre for women were poisoning her vegan food, and that a microchip had been put in her head to monitor her movements.