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MANDEL: Stranger killer Richard Edwin jailed for life after victim's family forgives him

Judge handed Richard Edwin, 43, on Tuesday an automatic life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 25 years

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Kartik Vasudev, their bright, promising son, set his sights on leaving India and travelling overseas to pursue his higher education.

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“He had dreams. Big beautiful dreams,” his father Jitesh recalled proudly. “He said to me, ‘Dad, just give me two years. After that, you won’t need to work. I will take care of everything in our families. I will support (his brother) Parth’s education and I will repay all the loans which we have taken.'”

MANDEL: Stranger killer Richard Edwin jailed for life after victim's family forgives him Back to video

Vacillating between Australia and Canada, Vasudev, 21, finally chose Seneca College. “Canada is my dream country,” he told his father in a conversation he will never forget, “and it’s better and safer for my future studies.”

If only that had been true.

Just three months after arriving here in January 2022, Vasudev was outside Sherbourne Station when he was shot repeatedly in the back by Richard Edwin, a man he had never met. Two days later, Edwin would kill another stranger — Elijah Mahepath, a 35-year-old University of Toronto graduate student walking on Dundas St.

No parole eligibility for 25 years

Earlier this week, Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly found Edwin, 43, guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, rejecting his defence that he was not criminally responsible due to schizophrenia. On Tuesday, she sentenced him to an automatic life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 25 years.

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“The bullets that struck both gentlemen are being felt by their families. Ambitions came to a deadly stop. Family gatherings are not the same. I am certain that the loss of both will be forever remembered and that the void they created will never be filled,” the judge said.

“These two killings have had a chilling effect on our community. Two innocent men were gunned down on two of our city streets in broad daylight. They were complete strangers to Mr. Edwin. I do not think that it stretches the bounds of anyone’s imagination to think: ‘It could have been me.'”

Vasudev’s parents travelled from India to hear this week’s verdict and to deliver their emotional victim impact statements of pain and loss.

‘We lose everything,’ victim’s mom says

His heartbroken mom Pooja told the court that her family continues to feel the agony of those bullets every day.

“What had my son done to deserve this?” she said. “He was an innocent boy simply following Google Maps on his way to his part-time job. There was no interaction, no conflict. Then why was he shot, what was this his fault? This man gained nothing, but we lose everything.”

Vasudev’s younger brother Parth, speaking virtually from India, was a shattered portrait of loss.

“The trauma of performing my brother’s last rites as his younger brother is something that continues to hurt me, physically and emotionally,” he told the court, while fighting back tears. “No younger brother should ever have to stand before the funeral fire of the person he admired most in his life.”

For the first time, the convicted killer spoke at his trial and offered brief words of apology: “I would just like to say that I’m sorry for all this and this wasn’t my fault. It was due to mental illness. I was having strong delusions at the time and that’s why I took the actions that I did.

“No person in their right mind would do something like that on camera. It doesn’t make any sense, a senseless act, but I’m sorry for it. And I hope for forgiveness as well.”

Mahepath family offers forgiveness

Incredibly, Mahepath’s family was prepared to grant him that request

Dr. Hannah Mahepath described her brother to the court as a genuinely happy, brilliant person who hoped to be a pastor.

“Richard Edwin did not take a stranger from this world. He took a man of extraordinary character,” she said in her victim impact statement. “He took a gentle soul who gave his last $50 to someone who threatened him. He took a brother who made me want to be better. He took a future pastor who would have spent his life pouring into others. Elijah Mahapath was irreplaceable, but what was taken on April 9, 2022, cannot be measured.

“Elijah believed in grace. I believe he would have forgiven Richard Edwin. Myself, my late father and my brother forgive Richard Edwin, as Jesus instructed us we have a duty to forgive. I also know that Richard Edwin is a sick man and I hold compassion for that sickness.”

But thankfully for the next 21 years — his sentence began at his arrest — we are safe from Edwin and his demons.

mmandel@postmedia.com

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