Nearly seven years after Shayne MacDonald murdered his aunt and tried to kill his great aunt when she intervened, the 28-year-old Toronto man has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years.
“This was a particularly brutal killing. The attack was extreme,” Superior Court Justice Rita-Jean Maxwell told court Tuesday while reading from his reasons for sentencing.
Maxwell found MacDonald guilty of the second-degree murder of his aunt, Sarah Vermelhudo, and the attempted murder of Vermelhudo’s mother, Maria Vermelhudo, in April.
In her judgment, Maxwell wrote “the proceedings in this matter took an unusually long time to complete. For the most part, the protracted nature of the proceedings arose from difficulties in scheduling the expert witnesses’ testimony.”
She added the defence sought several adjournments of the proceedings to obtain additional testing and reports on MacDonald.
The Crown suggested an appropriate period of parole ineligibility would be 20 years, whereas the defence said 10 years was more appropriate.
Sarah Vermelhudo, shown here in an undated Facebook photo, was the aunt of Shayne MacDonald, who was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder on Dec. 19, 2016.
It was Dec.16, 2016, just before 8 p.m. when MacDonald went to the College Street home where the Vermelhudos lived. He and his aunt had plans to watch a movie together.
Approximately 10 minutes after MacDonald arrived, family members heard screaming from the third floor. MacDonald had stabbed Vermelhudo nine times in the chest, abdomen and lower back with a pocketknife he had brought with him.
He inflicted a 12.5-cm incision across the front of her neck, severing her jugular vein and causing heavy bleeding. The wound to her neck caused her death.
Vermelhudo’s mother, Maria, was on the second floor when she heard screaming, running to try to help. When Maria approached, MacDonald grabbed her by the hair. As they struggled, MacDonald stabbed Maria twice in the middle of her back. Maria was eventually able to get away when her partner intervened. She was taken to hospital but survived.
MacDonald was able to escape from the home, leaving the pocketknife behind. The then-21-year-old man was arrested three days later at the corner of Dundas and Bathurst streets at a bus stop after police received a tip from the public of a person matching MacDonald’s description.
Defence lawyers Iryna Ryvutsky and Nicolas Pham argued MacDonald should be found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder. They asserted that MacDonald suffered a brief psychotic episode and believed his actions were based on a paranoid delusion that he was in danger.
Crown attorneys Heled How and Nathan Kruger countered that on the night of the stabbings, MacDonald was in the midst of enacting a long-held fantasy of killing and sexually assaulting Vermelhudo.
“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,” Maxwell wrote in her judgment.
Maxwell called the murder “a serious betrayal of trust,” and noted that the impact on the Vermelhudo family has been devastating — especially on Maria who witnessed her daughter being attacked and dying in front of her.
“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 and his youthful age.
Maxwell also said that MacDonald has expressed remorse and has demonstrated some rehabilitative potential.