TRURO
NOVA SCOTIA
CANADA
A Millbrook man charged with first-degree murder says he is harming himself because of mental health issues related to being held in segregation 24-hours a day.
“Well, I just slashed up, so is that what you guys want it to be?” Kevin Sylliboy said, in a testy verbal exchange with Judge Al Bégin. “Do you guys want me to end up in a body bag? Because my mental health is starting to deteriorate. I have been in seg for 50 days. Nobody wants to help me ‘cause the doctors say I’m criminally fit to stand trial, when they only come to see me for 15 minutes. How do they know? They don’t know what’s going on in my head. You try being locked in a cell for 24 hours a day with no communication.”
Sylliboy, 25, is charged with killing Jamie Blair, 46, inside the deceased’s home in Millbrook early last Easter Sunday morning.
A previous mental health assessment determined that Sylliboy is criminally fit to stand trial.
“I’m here suffering, I slashed. I did this just now,” he said, of an undisclosed incident just prior to a hearing in provincial court in Truro Thursday morning.
“How can the hospital say that when someone is going through things. Do you hear voices? I hear voices. I ‘m doing lines of frigging hot chocolate and they’re putting suboxone (a drug used to treat opiate addiction) on my frigging muffins, you know. I don’t know what to tell you. I’m going crazy.”
As during past hearings, Bégin took issue with the time frame involved in Sylliboy’s mental health assessment.
“I read it and we discussed it in court and it was far more than a 15-minute assessment,” Bégin countered. “They spoke to you three or four times over a period of time. Unfortunately, sir, if you are going to cut yourself and scratch yourself, whatever you are doing to yourself to bleed, if I read the assessment properly, I’m not a doctor, but you are doing it for other reasons apart from mental health. And I encourage you to restrain yourself as much as possible… .”
Sylliboy blamed his actions on his time in isolation and a lack of assistance for his medical issues.
“I’m on a murder charge and I am trying to get in the programs … and I can’t do that when I am in segregation,” he said. “Try being confined to a cell 24 hours a day with PTSD and all that.”
After previously dismissing his legal counsel, Sylliboy was represented at the hearing for the first time by Annapolis Valley lawyer Zeb Brown.
“So far in my introductions with Mr. Sylliboy,” Brown stated at the start of the hearing, “ I do have a concern about his continued fitness. Your honour, I know he went through an assessment and my concern is that, in speaking with Mr. Sylliboy, he’s advised me that he is currently being held in 24-hour health segregation and it does, from my limited involvement with him, appear to be having some impact on his mental health and on his ongoing ability, I think, to communicate and interact with me and to instruct me.”
Brown suggested it would “appropriate” to proceed with an application to have Sylliboy detained at East Coast Forensic Hospital in Dartmouth.
However, Bégin said officials there had made it “very clear” in Sylliboy’s written assessment that “they do not want him back there” because of his past behaviour.
“But at the same time, I’m not sure that It’s going to achieve anything to have Mr. Sylliboy slowly deteriorate,” Brown said.
Bégin suggested a “balance” would have to be found it that were determined to be the case.
“I’m on a murder charge and I am trying to get in the programs … and I can’t do that when I am in segregation,” Sylliboy said. “Try being confined to a cell 24 hours a day with PTSD and all that.”
During his last court appearance, Bégin had instructed, as per a request from the accused, that he be housed at the Northeast Nova Correctional Facility in Pictou county, instead of at the Central Nova Correctional Facility in Burnside, so he could have easier contact with family.
The judge was surprised, however, to learn from Sylliboy that the requested transfer had not occurred.
And while once again issuing instructions for the accused to be transferred to the Pictou County jail, Bégin said that outcome will depend in part on Sylliboy’s behaviour.
“I’m trying to help you here … I’m directing with as much power as I have … ,” Bégin said. “I have no problems getting the warden up here to tell me why you’re there, when I’ve directed you to be elsewhere. I have no problems doing that, OK. But if they come and they tell me it’s because you’re just jerking around and misbehaving, as crying for attention versus actually having serious issues, then it is going to fall on deaf ears.”
Sylliboy is to return to court in Truro on Sept. 25 so Brown can provide Bégin with an update on his situation.
A preliminary inquiry on Sylliboy’s murder charge is set to be heard in Nova Scotia Supreme Court beginning June 24 to 28 and from July 2 to 5, 2019.
