Jeremy Skibicki was driven by schizophrenia-fuelled delusions when he killed four women and should not be found criminally responsible for his actions, a forensic psychiatrist told court Tuesday.
“He was suffering from a number of delusional beliefs,” testified Dr. Sohom Das, who completed two forensic reports for the defence, concluding Skibicki suffers from schizophrenia.
“He believed he was on a mission from God,” Das said. “He felt compelled to carry out the killings.”
Das said he believes Skibicki knew what he did was legally wrong, but “in his mind, because of the delusional beliefs, he thought he felt compelled to do it.”
Skibicki, 37, has pleaded not guilty to four counts of first-degree murder in the May 2022 slayings of three Indigenous women — Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris and Marcedes Myran — as well as a fourth still-unidentified woman police believe was slain in March 2022 who has been given the name Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by Indigenous elders.
Skibicki has admitted to killing the women but is arguing he should be found not criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder. In a police interview video recorded after his May 17, 2022 arrest, Skibicki admitted strangling or drowning the victims in his McKay Avenue apartment and then dumping their remains in nearby garbage bins. Skibicki said he dismembered Contois and Myran in the bathtub with a combat knife.
He told police he had been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder and that he had been consuming meth prior to killing three of the women.
Das said Skibicki’s police interview video, medical and personal history and Das’s two interviews with Skibicki include telling hallmarks of someone living with schizophrenia.
Court heard Skibicki has a history of self-harm, violent outbursts and suicidal ideation dating back to his teens, with medical reports listing a number of self-reported or suspected conditions including depression, bipolar disorder and schizoaffective disorder.
Das said Skibicki appeared “lucid and sensible” for the first two-thirds of his police interrogation, before certain questions triggered a series of “delusional” statements, including a claim “God (was) in control” when he killed the women.
“I think this is a strong indicator of the delusional beliefs that I elicited during my assessment,” Das said.
Das said Skibicki told him he had a history of hearing voices and communicating with demons since he was a child. Asked if he thought the experiences were genuine or a symptom of mental illness, Skibicki replied: “Mental illness might be one possibility, or the devil might have been communicating with me. I’m not sure.”
Das said Skibicki showed no signs of faking mental illness, such as exaggerating his symptoms or steering the interview to focus on his mental state.
“In fact, it was the opposite,” Das said. “Mr. Skibicki was indifferent to his psychotic beliefs and he only mentioned them when I asked specific questions about them.”
“I don’t think you can rule out schizophrenia because these three psychiatrists didn’t make a diagnosis.”– Dr. Sohom Das
Skibicki appeared “cold, callous and indifferent” when describing his actions, which Das said was “very indicative of chronic schizophrenia.”
Das said Skibicki appeared overwhelmed by a belief his victims were “impure” and that if they were “subservient to God,” they could be saved from going to hell.
“He informed me that he believed if they were not subservient to God, he felt compelled to destroy them,” Das said. “He told me on more than one occasion that in doing so he was undertaking a mission from God.”
Skibicki told police he had sex multiple times with his victims’s corpses. Skibicki told Das the sex acts were meant to “sanctify the body” and were “acts of love.”
“In my view, these beliefs are indications of a delusion of control, which is a psychotic symptom that another person or external force is controlling one’s behaviour or impulses,” Das said.
Court previously heard testimony from Skibicki’s ex-wife, who said he would push her to take sleep medication and then have sex with her when she was unconscious.
Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft argued Das never pressed Skibicki on his claim he was directed by God to have sex with his dead victims.
“He has a sexual interest in having sex with a dead body,” Vanderhooft said. “You can’t just do that — you have to be sexually aroused. You didn’t explore the alternative hypothesis that he was doing it for pleasure.”
Vanderhooft said Skibicki had been examined by three different psychiatrists prior to his arrest, none of whom diagnosed him with schizophrenia.
“I don’t think you can rule out schizophrenia because these three psychiatrists didn’t make a diagnosis,” Das said.
Last month, Court of King’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal, at the Crown’s request, ordered that Skibicki undergo another forensic assessment. A report by Dr. Gary Chaimowitz filed in court Tuesday concluded Skibicki was suffering from no mental disorder that would allow him to claim he was not criminally responsible for the killings.
Skibicki “does not have a major psychiatric disorder associated with psychosis,” but does meet the criteria for substance abuse disorder, anti-social personality disorder and necrophilia, Chaimowitz wrote.
“Mr. Skibicki did appreciate the nature and quality of his actions and, in my view, would have known they were wrong from a legal and a moral perspective,” Chaimowitz wrote. “He did not have a mental disorder impacting his ability to appreciate that what he was doing was wrong or knowing that they were wrong.”
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.
Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.
Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.