Shayne MacDonald was just 21 when he viciously attacked his aunt, Sarah Vermelhudo, and then stabbed her mother Maria. A judge has described it as a ‘particularly brutal killing’
A 28-year-old man, who murdered his aunt and tried to kill his great aunt when she intervened, has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years.
Shayne MacDonald was found guilty of the second-degree murder of Sarah Vermelhudo, and the attempted murder of Sarah’s mother, Maria Vermelhudo, in April.
“This was a particularly brutal killing,” Superior Court Justice Rita-Jean Maxwell said at his sentencing this week. “The attack was extreme.”
The horrific crime took place on 16th December 2016, just before 8 pm. when MacDonald went to the home where the Vermelhudos lived. He and his aunt had plans to watch a movie together.
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But approximately 10 minutes after Toronto man MacDonald arrived, family members heard screaming from the third floor. MacDonald had stabbed his aunt nine times in the chest, abdomen and lower back with a pocketknife he had brought with him, Global News Canada reports.
MacDonald then inflicted a 12.5-cm incision across the front of Sarah’s neck, severing her jugular vein.
Sarah’s mother, Maria, was on the second floor when she heard screaming, and she ran in to try and help. But as Maria approached, MacDonald grabbed her by the hair, and as they struggled, MacDonald stabbed her twice in the middle of her back.
Maria was eventually able to get away when her partner intervened and was rushed to hospital. Thankfully, she survived.
MacDonald ran from the house, leaving behind his knife, but the then-21-year-old man was arrested three days later at a bus stop after police received a tip-off from the public.
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Defence lawyers argued MacDonald should be found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. They stated he suffered a brief psychotic episode and believed his actions were based on a paranoid delusion that he was in danger.
But crown attorneys countered that on the night of the stabbings, MacDonald was in the midst of enacting a long-held fantasy of killing and sexually assaulting his aunt.
“Violence and death were both a means to an end and part of the sexual act itself. Mr. MacDonald’s ideal sexual act was to have sex with a dead or dying person,” Superior Court Justice Maxwell wrote in her judgment.
She further described the murder as “a serious betrayal of trust”, and highlighted the impact on the Vermelhudo family has been devastating – especially on Maria, who witnessed her daughter being attacked and then dying.
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In her victim impact statement read by the Crown, Maria shared her grief over the shocking death of her daughter.
“I have horrible and dark dreams, I am awakened by images and emotions that project me to the day when everything happened, thus reliving the hell that changed my life forever,” Maria said in her statement, via the Toronto Star.
“Surviving the death of a child is the worst thing you can experience. Surviving the death of a child in a scenario of atrocious, terrible and heinous violence — as I lived and experienced in the first person as an active witness and also as a direct victim of that same violence — is not translatable into a word.”
In her conclusion, Superior Court Justice Maxwell said that MacDonald’s desire to kill Sarah was “bolstered” by the evidence of his “longstanding and powerful fantasies about sexual violence, becoming aroused by sexual violence, and struggling to restrain himself from acting on the fantasies.”
He made statements about the fantasies in 2014 to staff at CAMH, including that the fantasies involved a family member, though he didn’t specify who, the judge noted.
“Mr. MacDonald has a documented history of having sexual fantasies involving family members and violent thoughts. His longstanding interest in violence and death is concerning,” Maxwell said.
“I don’t know the degree of risk he presents for future harm. I’m unable to place significant weight on it for determining parole ineligibility. It will be an important consideration if and when he seeks parole.”
The judge noted that mitigating factors included the fact that MacDonald experienced sexual abuse as a child and suffered mental health issues throughout his younger years including anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. MacDonald also had no prior criminal record.
She further said that MacDonald has expressed remorse and has demonstrated some potential for rehabilitation.
