The man who killed 70-year-old Michael Jones in his Chester Avenue residence in 2023 has been found guilty of second-degree murder after Justice Veronica Jackson delivered her verdict at a hearing on Thursday (May 28).
On March 6, 2023, Jones was found with life-threatening injuries to his head, and on March 15, he died in hospital as a result of his injuries. On April 3 that year, Michael King was charged with second degree murder. It was later found that King had attacked Jones with a hatchet, striking him in the head at least five times, fracturing his skull and damaging his brain.
Over the trial that began in March, the court heard about King’s relationship with drugs like cannabis, magic mushrooms, sleeping pills and chlorobutanol – a sedative he made himself – none of which pair well with schizophrenia, of which he was diagnosed with around the turn of the century when he was in his late teens or early 20s.
In the months leading up to the murder, Jones and King, who were housemates, had regularly fought over Jones’ smoking in the home and banged on each other’s walls, which was corroborated by a neighbour. Though forensic psychiatrist Dr. Andrew Kolchak said King may have been experiencing paranoia, somatic symptoms, psychosis, his opinion in linking King’s actions to psychosis is difficult.
In subsequent interviews with police, psychiatrists and when he took the stand during trial, King told inconsistent accounts about what he remembered about the incident – sometimes he didn’t remember the murder, sometimes he said he felt as though he was in a dream during the incident, sometimes he used mushrooms ahead of the attack and sometimes he hadn’t used mushrooms in months.
“Dr. Kolchak testified there were likely causes that drove Mr. King’s thinking, but he could not link them to the offence, and that the only driving force he identified was anger,” said Jackson. “I find that Mr. King’s evidence surrounding the attack, including what he says he remembers about the attack, and what he says was his state of mind at the time of the offence, is not reliable.”
The defence’s argument that King’s ability to see the consequences of his actions was impaired by drugs or schizoaffective disorder was purely speculative, said Jackson.
“I find no basis for concluding that factors such as Mr. King’s schizoaffective disorder diagnosis or symptoms, which waxed and waned, or the consumption of the chlorobutanol-like substance he tried to create disturbed Mr. King’s thought processes in a way that interfered with his understanding of the circumstances, or that displaces the common sense inference that he foresaw the predictable consequences of his violent actions, and meant to bring them about,” she added.
King’s next hearing will be on June 17, ahead of his sentencing, which will come at a later date.