A 20-year-old man pleading guilty to four counts of first-degree murder is an extremely rare incident that highlights the horrific nature of a mass stabbing he carried out in Ottawa last year, legal experts told the CBC.
Sri Lankan international student Febrio De Zoysa killed six people, including four children, at his home in Barrhaven in March last year.
He pleaded guilty last week to first-degree murder of 7-year-old Inuka Wickramasinghe; Ashwini Wickramasinghe, 4; Ranaya Wickramasinghe, 3; and Gamini Amarakoon, 40, a close family friend and one of the family’s two tenants.
De Zoysa pleaded guilty to two lesser counts of second-degree murder of mother Darshani Ekanayake, 35, and her two-month-old baby, Kelly Wickramasinghe. He pleaded guilty to attempted murder of Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, the father and sole survivor.
The fact that De Zoysa pleaded guilty to first-degree murder was notable, according to Mark Ertel, a criminal attorney not involved in the case.
“The most common reaction to a first-degree murder charge, even when there’s a strong Crown case, is to plead guilty unless some lesser plea is offered,” said Ertel, a partner at Bayne Sellar Ertel Macrae, an Ottawa law firm.
“It seems like it was a huge case,” Ertel told the CBC.
“A defense attorney’s role is always to try to get the best possible result for their client,” he said. “In this case, the best possible outcome was probably to prevent everyone from going to trial and just take the sentence that will inevitably be handed down, which is life imprisonment.”
First-degree murder carries an automatic sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years.
According to University of Ottawa professor Jennifer Quaid, about 90 percent of all criminal cases are settled through negotiations without going to trial, but it is unusual for a defendant to plead guilty to the most serious charge.
“In this case, it may be that there really wasn’t any other conclusion that you could draw from the evidence,” she said. “The crimes are horrific – I think there is no other way to describe them.”
The Wickramasinghe family is celebrating their daughter Ranaja’s third birthday. From left, father Dhanushka Wickramasinghe, two-month-old daughter Kelly, daughters Ashwini (4) and Ranaya (3), son Inuka (7) and mother Darshani Dilanthika Ekanayake (35) (Facebook)
De Zoysa, who boarded with his family, told the court he intended to kill all the family members because he ran out of money and did not want to return to Sri Lanka when his international student visa expired.
For the Wickramasinghe family, “it was good [him]”, he told investigators.
Speaking outside court Thursday, Crown prosecutor Dallas Mack said De Zoysa’s plea “acknowledges his acceptance of the inevitable: his guilt.”
Had De Zoysa not pleaded guilty, the prosecution would have “built a powerful case that would have secured the convictions today,” Mack said, declining to answer further questions.
Earlier in court, defense barrister Ewan Lyttle agreed De Zoysa had “done the unthinkable”.
“But today he is doing what is right and what is expected of him, and your honor knows that not many people in his situation do that,” Lyttle said in sentencing.
Lyttle said he would not try a mental illness defense, although there was “no doubt” his client was mentally ill.
Speaking outside court after the verdict, Lyttle said the trial was the result of a “negotiated settlement”.
“This could not have happened without the Crown and the defense and the offender working together and listening to each other. This collaboration will save the victims and the community the pain of a further trial,” he said.
Lyttle declined to comment further when contacted Friday.
Judge Kevin Phillips recognized both the Crown and the defense at the end of the case.
“I want to close this matter by thanking the lawyers for their very professional conduct. You have distinguished yourself in the eyes of the court,” he said.