Crown quizzes psychiatrist in Saskatoon murder trial about potential motive, impact of potent cannabis
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The Crown in the Thomas Hamp murder trial in Saskatoon is suggesting the 28-year-old was in a drug-induced psychosis when he killed his partner Emily Sanche three years ago.
Prosecutor Cory Bliss raised the theory while cross-examining defence witness Shabehram Lohrasbe, a forensic psychiatrist who did an assessment on Hamp, who is charged with second-degree murder and on trial at Court of King's Bench before Justice Grant Currie.
Lohrasbe did not disagree with Bliss, noting "this reality poses a dilemma."
"There is the possibility this is all the result of cannabis, but we won't know."
Lohrasbe concluded in his report, based on five hours of interviews with Hamp and a review of notes kept by Sanche and her cousin, that Hamp "was acutely and severely psychotic" when he fatally stabbed the 25-year-old in their apartment on Feb. 20, 2022.
"Psychosis was the dominant factor that drove his violence," Lohrasbe wrote in his 25-page assessment.
"It is likely that his capacity to 'know' that his actions were wrong, in the real world, was severely impaired."
In the report, Lohrasbe said his conclusion acknowledged that Hamp's severe obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) and cannabis use disorder both could have contributed to the psychotic episode. But he said the degree to which they influenced what happened could never be known.
Bliss quizzed Lohrasbe on the general impact of today's high-potency cannabis on mental health. The B.C. doctor has practised psychiatry for four decades and said cannabis potency today is a far cry from the "hippie pot" he encountered at the start of his career.
Lohrasbe said that, because of this potency, a drug-induced psychosis from cannabis could look like mental illness. Bliss said this has significant implications in this case, because a psychotic break caused by substances changes whether an accused is criminally responsible.
Lohrasbe added that the detailed notes and text messages written by Sanche, who was studying for a master's degree in counselling and expressed concerns about her partner's deteriorating mental health in the year before he killed her, and notes take by Sanche's cousin, Catherine, are "incredibly important documents" because of the objective insights they provide into his behaviour.
Bliss questioned whether it's possible that Sanche's notes detailing how Hamp needed professional help could have provided a motive for the attack.
Hamp was supposed to go to the hospital the day he killed Sanche and Bliss suggested that he could have seen this as Sanche pulling back in the relationship and abandoning him.
"I get your point," Lohrasbe replied.
"But that's been ongoing [the notes] and I fail to see how that translates into abandoning him."
Hamp originally told a neighbour and police that a man had broken into the third-floor apartment and attacked the couple. He recanted that later, saying that he stabbed Sanche and then himself.
Bliss suggested that Hamp concocted the intruder story and then stabbed himself to support the alibi.
Lohrasbe said that was possible, "but we'll never know."
The defence closed its case after Lohrasbe's testimony. Bliss then successfully applied to recall Hamp to question him on the contents of the assessment.
He asked Hamp about the impact of his cannabis use, in reference to a letter he wrote.
While in custody after Sanche's death, Hamp wrote a letter to Emily's cousin, Catherine. In the letter, entered as an exhibit, he speaks about his escalating paranoia in the fall of 2021.
"I did not believe it at the time, but I now think this paranoia and ensuing psychosis were caused by the weed I was smoking," he wrote.
Lohrasbe had testified that the independent documentation of his deteriorating mental health from Emily and Catherine Sanche is so important because when people are psychotic, their mental landscape is rapidly evolving.
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