Man accused of killing parents wants police statement tossed

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Hours after he made two frantic 911 calls to report that his younger brother had killed their parents, Alpha Henry was interviewed for 90 minutes by Toronto Police.

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Now Alpha’s lawyer wants that police statement tossed, telling the judge that it can’t be considered voluntary because the man now on trial for those murders was suffering from mental-health issues, hadn’t slept in 24 hours, was severely injured and didn’t understand the legal jeopardy he faced.

And it’s considerable jeopardy: Alpha, 30, has pleaded not guilty at his judge-alone trial to two counts of second-degree murder in the stabbing deaths of his father Colin Henry, 68, and mother Veronica, 67, as well as not guilty to the attempted murder of his brother Daniel Kwame Henry.

“He doesn’t have an appreciation of who he’s speaking to or the fact that what he’s saying can be used against him,” defence lawyer Jamie Kopman told Superior Court Justice Joan Barrett.

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His “bizarre, erratic and tangential behaviour is disconnected from what a person with an operating mind, that being someone charged with two counts of first-degree murder (at the time), would display.”

Crown prosecutors contend the homeless Alpha fatally stabbed his parents at about noon on Sept. 19, 2022, and then used his mother’s phone to send his flight attendant brother a text to find out when he was returning home from Japan.

Alpha then cleaned up the bloody apartment, they alleged, and video surveillance shows him throwing out items in a dumpster behind the building and then going to the nearby gas station.

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“The Crown’s theory is that he then poured the gasoline on those bodies,” prosecutor Michael Wilson told the judge.

The following day, receipts and video show he purchased a set of knives — “most importantly a six-inch butcher knife” — and more gasoline and lay in wait for his brother to come home, Wilson said.

Court has heard Daniel returned from Japan on the afternoon of Sept. 20 and after spending the evening with friends, came back to the Rexdale apartment he shared with his parents at about 1:30 a.m. on Sept. 21 to allegedly find his brother waiting with a knife. After a struggle, the Crown said Daniel escaped and had someone call 911. Meanwhile, Alpha made his own 911 calls, claiming his brother was a killer.

They were vicious murders.

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The couple’s bodies were found tangled together in the apartment bathtub, doused in gasoline. A forensic pathologist testified Veronica suffered 16 sharp wounds, mostly to her head, face and neck and with fatal stab wounds to her jugular vein and aorta.

Her husband had 25 sharp injuries, 14 to the head and neck, and the most critical being a stab wound to his chest.

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Both sons were taken into custody, but investigators soon determined their prime suspect was Alpha. Court heard he was given his right to counsel and cautioned that anything he said could be used against him.

Alpha was later interrogated on video by Det. Michael McGinn. The Crown argued his police statement was more than voluntary — he was very keen on pinning the blame on his younger brother and calling himself the victim.

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“It’s the Crown’s assertion that this version of events by Alpha Henry is an obvious fabrication … designed to deflect the police investigation away from him and on to Kwame,” Wilson argued.

The prosecutor admitted some of Alpha’s behaviour was strange — he told hospital staff that his next of kin contact was his parents — but it didn’t impact his ability to understand the circumstances he was in.

During his statement, Alpha claimed Daniel had arrived home and angrily attacked them. He told McGinn that in the few minutes after he’d fled the apartment, his brother must have murdered his parents and moved their bodies to the bathtub.

Alpha also told the detective he hadn’t left the apartment in the days before, but was presented with stills from video surveillance showing him at the gas station filling jerry cans that were later found with blood stains in the apartment.

Kopman argued police created an “oppressive” atmosphere that should void his statement with officers not taking steps to ensure Alpha had slept or had the medical attention he requested — despite at least one officer knowing he was described as EDP, or emotionally disturbed.

Was he mentally ill or crazy like a fox?

The trial continues.

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