A Vancouver Island man accused of murder in the hit-and-run death of a cyclist will undergo a court-ordered psychiatric assessment.
Steven Squires is charged with first-degree murder in the Feb. 8 death of 54-year-old Rodney Kelly, near Cumberland.
Squires will be assessed at the Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam to determine his mental capacity at the time of the alleged offence.
Kelly was cycling on the Comox Valley Parkway when he was struck just over one year ago.
He was found by Dave Nuttall, who was driving home from work and saw Kelly’s flashlight shining out of a ditch.
“I realized this had to have been a bad accident because the bike was mangled, the wheels were folded, the frame was bent,” he told Global News in a March 2024 interview.
“I said, ‘Were you hit by a car?’ He said, ‘I wasn’t hit by a car, that’s preposterous.”
Kelly later died of his injuries.
In a highly unusual twist, the case went from a suspected hit-and-run to a first-degree murder charge against Squires in just three days.
Under the Criminal Code, first-degree murder requires planning and deliberation to kill someone but does not require the killer to know the victim.
Last Friday, Squires’ defence filed an application to have him declared not criminally responsible by way of a mental disorder (NCRMD).
The defence told the court Squires did not know the victim and does not have a criminal record.
The court has heard that when Squires was in high school he was apprehended under the Mental Health Act, and that his family has a history of schizophrenia on his mother’s side.
It also heard Squires went into a lengthy period of isolation prior to the incident, and how his mother found a drawing of him ascending to heaven.
Squires remains in custody, and his next court appearance is scheduled for March 24 in Courtenay.
–with files from Rumina Daya