Richard Edwin has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years after a judge found he deliberately targeted and killed two strangers in separate Toronto shootings in April 2022.
The sentence was imposed one day after Edwin was convicted of two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Kartik Vasudev and Elijah Mahepath. In her ruling, Justice Jane Kelly found both killings were planned and rejected the defence claim that Edwin should be found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder.
Kelly said the evidence showed Edwin set out armed with a loaded gun before each attack and intentionally selected strangers as targets.
One of the victims, 21-year-old Seneca College student Kartik Vasudev, was shot on April 7, 2022, while heading to work near an entrance to Sherbourne Station. He was taken to hospital, where he later died.
According to the court decision, Edwin arrived at the station carrying a loaded firearm and approached Vasudev from behind as the young man walked toward the stairs.
“Mr. Edwin rushed past Mr. Vasudev and then turned to face his back. He withdrew his firearm and discharged it several times as Mr. Vasudev was walking away,” the court decision read.
The judge also described how the shooting continued after Vasudev went down.
After Vasudev fell to the ground, “Edwin ran south on Glen Road, turned around, stopped, faced Vasudev and shot in his direction several more times,” the decision stated.
A second fatal shooting followed on April 9, 2022, near Dundas Street and George Street. Kelly found Edwin again left home carrying the same loaded gun before encountering Elijah Mahepath and opening fire.
“Mr. Mahepath fell to the ground. Mr. Edwin continued to shoot in his direction,” the court decision read. Mahepath later died in hospital.
Victim Elijah Mahepath
The defence argued Edwin was not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder. Court heard he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2010. Kelly ruled the evidence did not leave her with a reasonable doubt about whether Edwin understood the moral wrongfulness of his actions.
“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Edwin planned to kill a stranger on April 9, 2022, by shooting them. He deliberated on that plan. It was ‘carefully thought out’ and ‘considered’ before it was implemented,” Kelly wrote in her decision.
“It is my view that the evidence of Mr. Edwin’s mental disorder does not raise a reasonable doubt as to whether either of the murders was planned and deliberate”.
