Closing arguments in admitted Winnipeg serial killer's trial followed by rally to search landfill

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

The trial of an admitted Winnipeg serial killer heard duelling arguments Monday during closing submissions about whether Jeremy Skibicki was driven by psychotic symptoms and delusions linked to schizophrenia when he killed four women in 2022, or whether he preyed on vulnerable women at homeless shelters before committing four planned, deliberate murders.

Defence lawyers and prosecutors each tried to poke holes in the credibility of the forensic psychiatrist the other side enlisted to assess Skibicki's mental state — key evidence in a trial where the accused has admitted to the killings, but is asking to be found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.

Those attempts included urging from prosecutors for the judge to completely reject testimony from U.K.-based Dr. Sohom Das, the defence expert who testified it was his opinion Skibicki, 37, should be found not criminally responsible because of schizophrenia. 

Crown attorney Christian Vanderhooft called that a "preposterous conclusion" fed by a "self-serving" story Skibicki told the expert about hearing voices and acting on delusions that he was on a mission from God, which he said was why he killed the women and performed sex acts on their bodies.

Prosecutors argued Das's evidence should be given "very little if any weight" based on concerns surrounding his credibility, in part because of YouTube videos that came under scrutiny during the trial.

Those concerns also included a failure to consider all the material and possibilities available to him (including Skibicki searching online for things such as the definition of a serial killer), and an opinion underpinned by flawed reasoning and a weak factual foundation, Crown attorney Renée Lagimodière said.

WATCH | What does not criminally responsible mean?:

Defence lawyer Leonard Tailleur levelled a similar criticism against Dr. Gary Chaimowitz, the Ontario-based forensic psychiatrist who assessed Skibicki for the Crown. He testified he believed the accused made up his delusions and that Skibicki was actually motivated by racism and a homicidal necrophilia, or an arousal to having sex with people he's killed.

"He listened to Mr. Skibicki, he took all of the parts that he wanted to fit into his hypothesis," Tailleur said. "He threw away everything else."

Skibicki has pleaded not guilty to four first-degree murder charges in the deaths of three First Nations women — Rebecca Contois, 24, Morgan Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26 — and an unidentified woman community leaders have given the name Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman, who police have said they believe was an Indigenous woman in her 20s.

The women are believed to have been killed between March and May 2022.

Contois's partial remains were found in garbage bins near Skibicki's apartment in May 2022, and more were later discovered during a search of a Winnipeg landfill. Harris's and Myran's remains are believed to be in another landfill outside the city, which the provincial and federal governments each pledged $20 million earlier this year to search.

After closing arguments in the trial wrapped up on Monday, dozens of people gathered for a rally outside the Winnipeg law courts. Some sang and drummed, while others chanted "bring them home" or held signs saying "search the landfill" or "a garbage dump is not a grave site."