Man who dismembered roommate seeks absolute discharge

A mentally ill man who stabbed his roommate 320 times, dismembered him, and tried to remove his heart sought an absolute discharge earlier this month.

Source: Facebook

A mentally ill man who stabbed his roommate 320 times, dismembered him, and tried to remove his heart sought an absolute discharge earlier this month. He has already been granted a conditional discharge and is now allowed to live semi-independently in a Hamilton apartment.

Shafaq Joya, 39, was conditionally discharged for the 2016 second-degree murder of his roommate after being deemed not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

The attack, which involved two knives and was reportedly prompted by auditory hallucinations, occurred on February 27, 2016.

When police arrived at the scene of the crime, they found a deceased victim who was missing body parts.

Joya then appeared in his underwear with socks on his hands before being arrested.

During his subsequent criminal proceedings, a psychiatrist from St. Joseph’s Health Centre told the court that he believed Joya is not criminally responsible, as he “was eliminating a demon, not a human being” at the time.

Evidence showed Joya was experiencing schizophrenia, for which he had been prescribed medication in 2012, but refused to take.

Also diagnosed with cannabis use disorder, the court heard he had begun “seeing demons” at least two years prior to the attack.

At his annual Ontario Review Board hearing in March last year, Joya’s defence counsel requested an absolute discharge for the crime, arguing Joya no longer posed a significant threat to public safety.

However, both his care team and the Ontario Attorney General’s office opposed the application.

The ORB ultimately rejected the request and upheld his conditional discharge. That decision was affirmed by the Ontario Court of Appeal on July 2.

And yet, despite authorities acknowledging Joya still presents some threat to public safety, he was permitted to move out of the hospital and into a one-bedroom apartment in Hamilton in June 2021. Every 28 days, he receives an antipsychotic injection at the Forensic Outpatient Clinic.

Joya was born in Kabul, Afghanistan and immigrated to Canada with his family in 1997.