Davy Balan has a strikingly similar pattern of stabbing random strangers and leaving the scene and, on two previous occasions, was found to be not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
On June 30, 2023, Balan stabbed Maxim Karyakin once in the heart as he walked toward Cedarbrae Mall in Scarborough in the middle of the afternoon. The 30-year-old stumbled and collapsed and died at the scene. No words were exchanged between them. The two men never met. Several onlookers saw what happened and called 911.
Police arrested Balan, 58, two days later and charged him with first-degree murder. This spring, he stood trial.
Balan acknowledged unlawfully killing Karyakin but said he was not criminally responsible (NCR) because he suffers from a mental disorder — schizophrenia — that rendered him incapable of knowing that his conduct was morally wrong.
Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly, sitting without a jury, decided otherwise, and found him guilty of first-degree murder.
Maxim Karyakin, 30, died June 30, 2023, when he was stabbed in the heart by a total stranger. Davy Balan has been found guilty of first-degree murder.Â
ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ PoliceWhile the judge said she was satisfied Balan was suffering from schizophrenia at the time of the offence, there was no evidence that he was experiencing any delusions or hallucinations at the time, she wrote in her reasons released last week.
“I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Balan planned to kill a stranger that day, by stabbing them,” she added.
There was nothing “disorganized” about his conduct on the day of the killing, she wrote, after reviewing surveillance videos tracking his movements from his apartment to driving to the crime scene.Â
“He got into his vehicle with the tools to commit the offence and then discarded the knife and identifiable clothing in three separate locations before returning to his home. His conduct on the day in question supports the conclusion that he not only knew what he did was legally wrong but also had the capacity to know what he did would be viewed by reasonable members of society as morally wrong.”
Two psychiatrists testified at trial and reached different conclusions. “However, the basis for their opinions did not differ by much,” Kelly wrote.
One found the fact that Balan had been found NCR on two previous occasions “significant” and said that suggested he was likely in a similar mental state on June 30, 2023. Therefore, the NCR defence was available to him, he concluded.
The other doctor said he was “unable to conclude on balance that this gentleman is NCR.”
The judge included details from when Balan was found NCR in the past.
On April 18, 2000, Balan was seated in his vehicle in the rear of 92 James St. in ÎÚÑ»´«Ã½ with his six-year-old son. The male victim was returning from work and got dropped off by taxi. Balan walked towards him and began stabbing him in the upper body. (The victim survived.) Balan was found NCR and placed under the supervision of the Ontario Review Board. In 2003 he was conditionally discharged and in 2004 absolutely discharged.Â
Davy Balan’s health card, submitted as an exhibit at his trial (number has been blurred). Two psychiatrists testified at Balan’s trial and reached different conclusions.
Court exhibitOn July 1, 2006, Balan stabbed a man in the chest in the parking lot of a Tim Horton’s at 1900 Midland Ave. The victim survived. Again Balan was found NCR, placed under the supervision of the Ontario Review Board, and conditionally discharged in 2010 and absolutely discharged in 2012.
During the trial for the killing of Karyakin, court heard that from 2018 to May 2023, Balan had been under the supervision of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Stepped Care Team, which provides treatment rehabilitation and support services to individuals diagnosed with a serious mental illness.
Balan had been in the care of two nurses since 2018. They testified over the years he was stable despite a history of experiencing auditory hallucinations that he learned to ignore. In May and June 2023, he quit his job at the LCBO and missed some medical appointments, but they did not have any safety concerns.
Two days before the stabbing, the nurses visited him at his home where he reported taking his medication “most of the time but sometimes I don’t,” but he seemed “organized, pleasant, co-operative, felt safe in his home.” He seemed “relatively stable.”
Balan will receive an automatic life sentence at a sentencing hearing in October.
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