Accused in killing found not criminally responsible

J.P. Antonacci

Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The human side of the justice system was on display in a Simcoe courtroom on Thursday (Feb. 12) as a homicide case that inched through the courts for nearly five years came to a painful — and tearful — conclusion.

“I have heard you all that this process was very difficult,” Justice Aubrey Hilliard said after finding Robert Ballard not criminally responsible for killing his friend, Michael Murray of Delhi, in March 2021.

“There was nothing, unfortunately, that I was able to do to make it easier,” Hilliard continued, pausing to fight back tears.

The judge — who was in charge of this case ever since Ballard’s arrest in April 2021 — was not alone in shedding a tear.

Many of Murray’s two dozen loved ones in the courtroom sobbed as the court heard 11 victim impact statements read aloud by his nieces and nephews, his three brothers, his partner and his elderly parents.

Together, they painted the picture of a beloved son, uncle and friend.

“Michael was my partner, my best friend, and the person I planned to grow old with and raise horses,” said Murray’s partner, Laura DeBellis.

That future “disappeared in a single act of violence,” DeBellis continued.

“Before, I felt safe in my home and my future. Everything feels uncertain and fragile now.”

Ballard pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in November. On Thursday, Hilliard ruled Ballard was in the midst of a psychotic episode when he killed Murray and therefore “was incapable of appreciating the wrongness of his actions.”

Ballard was known to use alcohol and cannabis. He told the officer who arrested him he has “smoked a ton of weed” the day Murray died.

But there was no evidence of drug use at Murray’s apartment, and Ballard’s mother found no drugs in her son’s motel room, nor did he seem impaired before she dropped him downtown and he ended up walking to Murray’s home.

Self-induced psychosis is not grounds for an NCR defence, but Hilliard said Ballard’s underlying personality disorder — a “disease of the mind” in legal parlance — is what caused the psychosis and makes him a “continuing danger” to reoffend if again triggered by drugs.

The judge said indefinite psychiatric assessment and treatment would keep Ballard from using drugs, while he would have ready access to alcohol and cannabis were he convicted of second-degree murder and released on parole after 10 years.

Ballard’s lawyer, Genevieve Eliany, previously told the court an NCR ruling “is not a get-out-of-jail-free card.”

“The public tends not to understand that system. In many cases, it’s more restrictive than parole,” Eliany said.

Ballard will be “held indefinitely, potentially for life” and will be “closely supervised by a medical team,” his lawyer told The Spectator after the verdict.

Hilliard’s ruling elicited a single “wow” from among the more than two dozen friends and family of Michael Murray who filled one side of the spectators gallery, sitting opposite the lone figure of Ballard’s mother, Georgina Gray.

Between them sat the handcuffed defendant in the prisoner’s box, wearing a white T-shirt and staring dully ahead or down at the floor during the victim impact statement.

“He was someone I felt safe with and someone I turned to for guidance,” said Murray’s niece, Michelle Nicholson.

“He was everyone’s person.”

Police video footage of the crime scene shot by the OPP showed Murray’s home to be full of greenery, befitting a man his relatives described as having a deep love for plants and animals.

Murray and Ballard were neighbours at a Delhi motel before Ballard became a regular visitor at Murray’s new apartment in town.

Ballard’s texts to Murray became “increasingly bizarre” in the weeks leading up to the killing and Murray told his parents “he wanted to get his friend help” by connecting him to a social worker and a family friend in the clergy, Hilliard said in her ruling.

“Michael only wanted to help this boy and he paid for it with his life,” said Murray’s father, also named Michael.

Ballard’s mother said she too was left devastated by her son’s actions.

“My heart breaks for everybody,” a tearful Gray told reporters after the verdict. “You can’t bring Michael back. I wish I could. I wish it for everybody.”

Gray said her son, whom she called “Robbie,” has lost access to his children.

“And Michael has lost his life, and they’ve lost a loved (one),” she said. “We’ve all lost. There’s no winning.”

Ballard has been in custody since he was arrested a few hours after killing Murray, when he was found “disoriented and confused” after breaking into a garage in Delhi. Reading from a handwritten statement, Ballard addressed the court on Thursday, saying he was “full of sorrow every day that I am alive for what I did to Michael.”

Ballard said he was “not myself” the day he killed Murray, but rather “overcome by some kind of possession or psychosis.”

Hilliard ordered Ballard remanded to St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton and then into the hands of the Ontario Review Board, which will decide his treatment plan and eventual eligibility for parole.

Ballard showed emotion not seen during the three-week trial in November, his eyes red and brimming as he was led away after the verdict. Murray’s family was left “shattered” by the killing and its aftermath, his mother, Marilyn Murray, told the court.

“Since losing him, I have felt a constant ache that never goes away,” she said.

- J.P. Antonacci is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter based at the Hamilton Spectator. The initiative is funded by the Government of Canada.