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Nathaniel Veltman has been found guilty on four counts of first-degree murder and guilty of one count of attempted murder.
Veltman, 22, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder for a June 2021 attack on a Muslim family. Veltman pleaded not guilty.
Thirteen jurors heard evidence over the last 11 weeks but one juror was chosen at random Wednesday afternoon to be removed from deliberations because a verdict can only be decided by 12 according to the Criminal Code.
The jury began its deliberations Wednesday around 6:30 p.m. and started again Thursday morning around 9 a.m.
This is a developing story.
Summary of the case
In closing arguments, the defence asked the jury to consider manslaughter or second degree murder, arguing the Crown had failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that Veltman planned and deliberated his attack and that he intended to kill.
They also relied heavily on the testimony of a forensic psychiatrist who believed Veltman was in a “depersonalized” state at the time of the attack because of his mental illnesses, was suffering from “adverse effects” of consuming psilocybin and grief over the lost of his great-grandmother.
The prosecution on the other hand, asked the jury to dismiss all of the psychiatrist’s evidence, arguing it was based almost entirely on self-reporting of symptoms by Veltman himself and that the “adverse effects” are an “educated guess” and aren’t based on science but supported by one online survey.
The Crown asserted that Veltman planned his attack for months by purchasing a vehicle he couldn’t afford, body armor that was difficult to purchase, researching vehicle speed versus injury equations and writing a hateful manifesto outlining his “toxic beliefs” about Muslims.
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