Man found ‘not criminally responsible’ for fatal stabbing at Nanaimo coffee shop

On Monday, March 25, Turok pleaded not guilty due to a mental disorder to the second-degree murder of 79-year-old Eric Kutzner at the since-closed Buzz Coffee House on Rutherford Rd.

Turok’s mental state prior to, during and after the Feb 12, 2022 incident was the focus of a two-day hearing this week to determine whether he was criminally responsible for his actions.

Despite the not-guilty plea, an agreed statement of facts outlined how Turok entered an unlocked side door an hour-and-a-half before opening on a Saturday morning and stabbed Kutzner to death with a dozen strikes from at least one knife belonging to the cafe.

Expert independent forensic psychiatrists for both the Crown and defence featured opinions Turok didn’t understand the moral wrongfulness of his actions.

The victim, who was the father of the business owner, was found lying on his back with substantial blood loss and a white rag stuffed in his mouth, according to facts relayed by Crown prosecutor Basil McCormick on Monday.

Nanaimo RCMP converged on Buzz Coffee House following the Feb, 2022 stabbing death of Eric Kutzner (Kyle Ireland/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Turok shouted “he’s a zombie, he’s a zombie” in reference to Kutzner when he was told by police at the scene he was under arrest.

Turok was find hiding under a desk upon his arrest, and then made a series of incoherent, bizarre statements to police.

After self-harming himself several times in cells at the Nanaimo RCMP detachment, hours after the stabbing, Turok was escorted to the Nanaimo hospital under the Mental Health Act.

Turok, among numerous claims on his way to the hospital, proclaimed he was going crazy and a genius assisting Elon Musk.

At NRGH, Turok said he didn’t believe Kutzner belonged at the coffee house.

“He was a bag of puss or a bag of parasites, I killed that man, but he wasn’t a human, he was a parasite, so he’s not a living thing,” Turok said to staff at the hospital.

Claiming he was a healer and leader of this country, Turok stated his actions were the result of actions by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Zombies came at me, that’s why I had to kill that guy, that was a zombie, so how could I kill somebody that isn’t human? How could I consider killing something that in a sense is something that’s death, so it’s not human so it didn’t die.”

Associate chief justice Holmes outlined how psychiatrists for the Crown and defence both determined Turok suffers from shizoaffective and bipolar disorders.

Turok was hospitalized in 2012, 2014, 2016 and 2020 under the Mental Health Act.

“But then followed by discontinuation of the medication and relapse or reemergence of psychotic symptoms within the following year,” the judge stated in reference to findings by the Crown expert Dr. Robert Lacroix.

Turok was not medicated for between one to two years leading up to the offence, court was told.

He also had a documented history of mental health challenges for at least 10 years prior to the murder.

Thousands of pages of medical records were referenced in piecing together his mental health history,

A court-ordered psychiatric assessment determined he was mentally fit enough to stand trial, which is a lower threshold compared to being criminally responsible for his actions.

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ian@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @reporterholmes

by Ian Holmes

Man found ‘not criminally responsible’ for fatal stabbing at Nanaimo coffee shop

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