The man accused of killing Last Door Recovery Society employee Jason Collett has been found not criminally responsible by reason of mental defect, according to a judgment by Justice Elliott Myers in B.C. Supreme Court last week.
Collett, 38, was a house manager at Nanaimo House, a transition house in New Westminster, when he was killed by a resident in the early morning hours of Sept. 16, 2014.
His body was discovered in his room 14 hours later.
Police were called, and an investigation into his death began.
It wasn’t until the following day that Steven Rogers was arrested for the killing.
Rogers was 25 years old at the time. He was living at Nanaimo House and was part of the Last Door Recovery program.
A binge drug and alcohol user prior to his admittance to Last Door, Rogers had been free of drugs for more than a year when the attack occurred, according to the judgment.
On Sept. 15, 2014, Rogers had returned to Nanaimo House after moving some of his personal items to a new residence – one he was planning to move to that day. He decided to stay at Nanaimo House one more night, according to the judgment.
Sometime between midnight and 3 a.m. on Sept. 16, Rogers used a knife and hammer to kill Collett, according to an agreed statement of facts.
He would later tell police he had to do it.
“I don’t really know why, I just knew like, I had until 2:26 in the morning to kill. To save his soul and everybody else’s souls like from the beginning of time till the end of time, like. I needed – needed to. It was on me, it was my responsibility,” Rogers told police a few days later.
Rogers was arrested on Sept. 17 and charged with second-degree murder shortly after. He stood trial earlier this year.
Three psychiatrists were tasked with interviewing Rogers following the crime to determine his mental state at the time. All agreed that he was in a state of mental psychosis at the time of the killing – an opinion the presiding justice took into consideration when making his verdict.
“The trial in this matter is finally over, but we don’t feel that the loss of Jason’s life was really addressed properly,”Collett’s mother Denise wrote in a statement to the Record. “We were shocked, having been present throughout the five-week trial, that the judge came to the conclusion he did.”
Denise said she hopes the Crown will find grounds to appeal the decision.
“It’s hard to believe that it has been almost three years since we lost our beloved Jason,” she wrote, “but to those of us who loved him, it feels like forever. At times the pain of losing him is unbearable, at other times it is a dull ache, but it’s still there. The pain of knowing what should have been, should be now. He had so much left to give, so much of life left to experience; so many more hugs to give, smiles to smile, laughs to laugh and ‘I love you’s’ to share with those of us left behind.
“Nothing will ever make up for the loss of Jason’s life. Steven will eventually get to go home to his family; Jason doesn’t get that opportunity.”
A decision of not criminally responsible by reason of mental defect means Rogers’ fate will be decided in a hearing led by the court or a review board. It’ll be during this hearing that a decision will be made whether or not his release would post a risk to public safety.
