Supreme Court refuses to hear appeal by Calgary mass killer Matthew de Grood

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Canada’s top court won’t hear an appeal from Calgarian Matthew de Grood who, while in a state of psychosis, fatally stabbed five post-secondary students at a house party in Brentwood nearly 10 years ago.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an application for leave from de Grood’s lawyers, which requested the court consider overturning a 2023 verdict of the Alberta Court of Appeal.

De Grood has been under psychiatric care since the killings on April 15, 2014, which he committed while in a severe psychotic state, believing he was attacking werewolves or vampires.

All five victims — Kaiti Perras, Lawrence Hong, Josh Hunter, Zackariah Rathwell and Jordan Segura — were attending post-secondary studies in Calgary.

Gregg Perras, Kaiti’s father, said the board thoroughly assessed de Grood’s risk to the public and the Alberta Court of Appeal agreed the appeal was without merit.

“The Alberta Appeals Court soundly disagreed with the baseless assertions made by his lawyer back in 2022 regarding bias of the ARB (Alberta Review Board) and their judgment,” Perras said in a message.

De Grood was found not guilty on account of a mental disorder at his trial in 2016. While he has been allowed certain freedoms and unsupervised outings since then, he has primarily remained under professional supervision — first in Calgary and then in Edmonton — since his arrest.

At his 2022 mandatory disposition review, de Grood’s lawyers requested an absolute or conditional discharge for their client. The Alberta Review Board denied the request for increased freedoms, ruling de Grood must remain detained as he was still considered “a significant risk to public safety.”

Last June, the Alberta Court of Appeal also dismissed an appeal from de Grood, ruling there were no reviewable errors in the review board’s decision.

“Clearly, the Supreme Court found no reason to reopen the 2022 decisions by the review board and Alberta’s provincial appeals court,” Perras said. “Hopefully, now the five families can find some additional peace, at least until the next review of his case later this year.”

Jaqueline Petrie, de Grood’s lawyer, said the dismissal of the leave application is disappointing, as considering his appeal would have provided the Supreme Court “an opportunity to settle some very important legal issues, the lion’s-share of which had nothing to do with Mr. de Grood’s current disposition, and more about tribunal independence and impartiality.”

The Supreme Court’s decision also does not change her team’s concerns about the Alberta Criminal Code Review Board “and its government-selected adjudicators, and about the administration of justice in this process,” Petrie added.

“Nor does it change the overwhelming and accepted evidence about Mr. de Grood that he is completely dedicated to remaining well and poses a low risk for ever becoming violent or unwell again,” she said.

“As he has told the review board many times, public safety is his paramount concern, too.”

— With files from The Canadian Press