Toronto man admits to killing parents

Twenty-nine-year-old maintains schizophrenia makes him not criminally responsible for actions

- BETSY POWELL

Lynette and Francis Sequeira, both in their 60s, were killed by son Kyle Sequeira in their home in September 2021.

“My parents are dead. My sureties are dead. Can you come and get me?” Kyle Sequeira asked his friend during an audio and video call after bludgeoning his parents to death with a golf club in their east-end home.

The 29-year-old admitted in court Tuesday to killing Francis and Lynette Sequeira, both in their 60s, sometime between Sept. 4 and 5, 2021. However, he pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, claiming he is not criminally responsible due to mental illness — schizophrenia.

Prosecutors, however, argue that Sequeira was not experiencing psychotic symptoms at the time that would have rendered him incapable of understanding the nature of his actions.

Both sides are calling forensic psychiatrists offering different diagnoses on Sequeira’s mental state at the time of the murders.