No decision on B.C. school stabbing suspect’s mental fitness for trial

Gabriel Klein is charged with second-degree murder in the death of the teen and aggravated assault for an attack on another Grade 9 girl in November 2016.
(Pixabay photo)

COQUITLAM, B.C. — A British Columbia Review Board couldn’t reach a decision today on whether a man accused of stabbing a 13-year-old girl to death inside her Abbotsford high school is mentally fit to stand trial.

The board adjourned a hearing at a forensic psychiatric hospital for at least 30 days to get a second opinion on the 21-year-old man’s mental state.

Gabriel Klein is charged with second-degree murder in the death of the teen and aggravated assault for an attack on another Grade 9 girl in November 2016.

He shuffled into the hearing wearing sandals, baggy shorts and a long-sleeved T-shirt, his eyes glassy and mouth hanging open.

Klein only spoke once to ask where he was, and otherwise only murmured inaudibly a few times, occasionally raising his arms into the air and slowly lowering them down to the table.

A judge ruled the man was unfit to stand trial in April due to his schizophrenia, auditory hallucinations and disordered thinking, and the review board was ordered to reassess his fitness in 90 days.