Man found not guilty in murder
Prosecutors agree accused was suffering from psychotic episode when he killed receptionist
A man who was suffering from a psychotic episode when he fatally stabbed receptionist Julia Ferguson at a well-known downtown Toronto law firm has been found not criminally responsible for her death.
On Monday, prosecutor Alexander Merenda told court that for weeks before Osman Osman killed Ferguson on Sept. 2, 2021, he persistently harassed and threatened lawyers and staff at the Hicks Adams law firm, formerly at 238 King St. E. (The firm has since dissolved.)
At the time, Ferguson, 29, sat at an L-shaped desk directly across from the front door answering phone calls, fielding emails and dealing with people entering the downtown storefront office.
In August that year, the London, Ont., native received a call from Osman Osman, a Toronto man in his mid-30s who was once a client — although not for a while, prosecutor Alexander Merenda said reading from the facts to support an NCR hearing.
Over the next few weeks, Osman repeatedly sent emails and made phone calls to various people at the firm using profanity and threatening language that suggested lawyers and others with the firm were harassing him. On Aug. 30, 2021, Ferguson sent an email to members of the firm “complaining that Mr. Osman had contacted the firm again. She had recognized the voice; he said: “This is Osman, don’t ever contact me again b----.”
“Our office has not contacted you,” Ferguson told him and hung up the phone.
On the morning of Sept. 2, his tone was increasingly aggressive.
Ferguson emailed several senior lawyers in the firm alerting them to what was going on. At 11:12, she sent another email to an articling student who was also on the receiving end of his venom, including a threat to knock her teeth out. Ferguson urged the student to keep track of how many times he calls and “if it persists we may have to actually do something about it.”
A lawyer at the firm testified at an earlier court proceeding that Ferguson told her Osman threatened to “come down there” and stab and cut her open.
After lunch that day, an unknown male carrying a backpack pounded loudly and aggressively on the firm’s unlocked front doors. Upon entering, he took a seat in the reception area and looked agitated, while Ferguson placed a call to a lawyer announcing Osman’s presence, the prosecutor said.
That lawyer told Ferguson he would not assist this man. She hung up the phone and relayed to Osman that the lawyer “said you have to leave.” Osman then approached Ferguson, reached into his backpack, retrieved a knife and plunged it into her chest repeatedly, in full view of an articling student, who called 911.
Osman then left the office and was chased by a lawyer, while others at the firm tended to Ferguson. She died a few days later in hospital. Osman walked to nearby 51 Division — where officers arrested him with a large kitchen-style knife with blood on the blade. He was eventually charged with first-degree murder but two forensic psychiatrists concluded he was unable to appreciate the legal or moral wrongfulness of his actions.
Court heard Osman has a welldocumented history of suffering from schizophrenia and when he stops taking his medicine, he becomes psychotic and experiences delusions. On Sept. 2, 2021, Osman believed an “evil presence” had commanded him to kill in an act of self-defence. A forensic psychiatrist who testified Monday said he had stopped his medication 18 months earlier.
On Monday, Superior Court Justice Alfred O’Marra referred Osman to the Ontario Review Board; until a space is available at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH), he will remain at the Toronto South Detention Centre.
On Monday, the heavy-set man sat still in the prisoner’s box looking straight ahead.
Ferguson’s brother, Chris, watched the proceedings via Zoom. “Failed system and nothing will be done,” he said via text message, adding that was his only comment.
Ferguson’s death notice said that she loved plants and dogs and hoped to one day open an animal sanctuary with her brother.
Defence lawyer Charn Gill agreed the system is broken but said, “This is the right outcome for all parties and society.”
Osman will now receive “the treatment he needs and will not be back in the community until the (Ontario Review Board) decides otherwise,” Gill wrote in an email.
Gill said he personally has no fear of Osman. “No doubt his integration back into society will be gradual, and as long as he is medicated, I don’t believe he will pose any risk.”
Gill said that by all accounts, Osman is a “respectful, mild-mannered individual but for his mental illness.” Osman has no criminal record, although he had been arrested on numerous occasions for alleged mischief and making threats. All of those charges were diverted into the mental health stream, Gill said. Osman has been medicated for more than two years and is now able to appreciate the consequences of his actions and is remorseful, the defence lawyer continued.
Court was told Monday that as Osman attacked Ferguson, he felt like he was “stabbing air” and only knew “something” had happened because the knife was red. He went to 51 Division not to turn himself in but because he was seeking help for his bleeding hand.
Osman’s family wanted him to receive treatment but were powerless “in the system as it is a revolving door of hospital admissions with the root cause not being addressed.”