Inderdeep Singh Gosal testified during trial that he stabbed Paul Schmidt. It’s up to a B.C. Supreme Court judge to decide whether he had the requisite intent for murder as opposed to manslaughter after Tuesday’s closing arguments from both sides
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Who killed Paul Schmidt on a busy Starbucks patio was never the issue.
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That’s because Inderdeep Singh Gosal told police within minutes of the stabbing, “I did it, he came at me.” And he confessed to the killing on the stand of his trial in B.C. Supreme Court.
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Lawyers delivering their closing arguments Tuesday agreed the case is rather about whether Gosal had the required necessary legal intent for murder.
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The prosecutor said the evidence, especially the 24 seconds of the CCTV footage of the stabbing and events leading up to it, support conviction on the second-degree murder charge. That means an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
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Gosal’s lawyer is arguing for the less serious charge of manslaughter, for which there is no mandatory minimum sentence, except for gun crimes.
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Gosal was charged with second-degree murder after the daytime stabbing at the cafe on Georgia and Granville streets in March 2023. Schmidt had complained about Gosal smoking near his toddler, which led to a short physical fight before Schmidt was stabbed within metres of many onlookers.
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Gosal, who sat in the prisoner’s dock Tuesday wearing a dark blue pullover sweater and black pants, should be found guilty of manslaughter, not murder, his lawyer, Gloria Ng, told Justice Kathleen Ker.
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In her closing arguments, Ng argued reasonable doubt exists about whether Gosal had the intent to kill because he was in an “unmedicated” medical state, due to a failure to take his antipsychotic medicine, and because he suffered from fear and paranoia.
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“The evidence, we say, does not support this conclusion that Mr. Gosal acted with a deliberate intent to kill” because his perception of reality and appreciation of the consequences were “profoundly distorted by his untreated mental illness,” she said.
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She included evidence from doctors about his mental illness they classified as moderate psychosis.
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Gosal also testified that Schmidt attacked him first, and he was defending himself because he thought Schmidt was going to kill him. And he said he carried a knife that day because he needed it because he’s been attacked before.
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But prosecutor Karin Blok said the evidence shows Gosal attacking Schmidt first, physically and verbally.
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In her closing arguments, she said Gosal testified he only took the knife out after he tried to unsuccessfully push Schmidt away a couple of times, but that was “all lies” because the video showed him taking out the knife before Schmidt approached him.
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Ng told court Tuesday that two months before the stabbing, Gosal and his sister were fighting over his failure to take his meds when he threw a glass coffee table at her and it shattered. He said he remembers holding the table, then there was a blur and “when he came to,” he saw his sister lying there covered in glass.
