A hearing is underway to determine if a Nanaimo man is not criminally responsible for the murder of a Victoria woman last year.
Simon Baker, 23, has pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Denise Allick on June 20, 2022.
Offenders can be deemed not criminally responsible if they were suffering from a mental disorder that rendered them incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or of knowing that it was wrong.
The hearing is being held in B.C. Supreme Court in Nanaimo. A decision will be given on Jan. 10, said Dan Mclaughlin, communications counsel for the B.C. Prosecution Service.
Nanaimo RCMP responded to a report of a disturbance outside a house in south Nanaimo around 10 p.m. on June 20, 2022.
When they arrived, they found Allick dead from injuries. Autopsy results revealed she had been stabbed six times.
Baker was arrested without incident a short time later.
At the time, police said they did not know if Baker and Allick knew each other. “We don’t know what led her to be at that house,” said RCMP Const. Gary O’Brien.
Friends of Allick were shocked by her murder. Margaret DeGirolamo, who had been friends with Allick for 19 years, described the 40-year-old as kind and caring and greatly missed.
“Denise was very energetic, enthusiastic, outgoing and a happy-go-lucky person. She would do anything for anybody to help in any way,” she said.
