A Toronto man found not criminally responsible for killing his girlfriend who got a conditional discharge earlier this year from the Ontario Review Board is subject to a new detention order after police found him this summer roaming naked around a Simcoe County lake screaming about God.
asserted
police → find → God
Subsequent urine testing found that Michal Nowaczek-Said was not taking his anti-psychotic medication, according to a recent decision from the ORB, an independent tribunal that regularly reviews the status of individuals found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder.
uncertain
that → find → disorder
“In this case, the nature and degree of Mr. Nowaczek-Said’s risk to public safety, including the speed and intensity of a relapse of his illness, compels the conclusion that a conditional discharge … is insufficient to protect the public,” according to an Aug. 25 ORB decision.
uncertain
discharge → include → decision
Nowaczek-Said, now 33, was found not criminally responsible in December 2020 for his girlfriend’s murder three years previous.
asserted
Said → find → murder
The panel heard that on the day Nowaczek-Said introduced his girlfriend to his mother, Sept. 10, 2017, the couple began arguing in his mom’s apartment.
asserted
couple → hear → apartment
They had only met a week before at the Canadian National Exhibition.
asserted
They → meet → Exhibition
Their argument evolved into a physical fight, and his mom tried to intervene to separate the two.
asserted
mom → evolve → two
“While doing so, (her son) punched her in the head multiple times resulting in her nose bleeding profusely,” said the ORB decision, which notes his mother then fled her apartment and called police.
asserted
mother → do → police
When police arrived on the scene, they learned Nowaczek-Said was armed with a knife.
asserted
Said → arrive → knife
“The accused exited the apartment with no shirt on and covered in blood.”
asserted
shirt → accuse → blood
Police found his girlfriend lying on the blood-soaked kitchen floor.
asserted
girlfriend → find → floor
The woman had 11 stab wounds to her abdomen, a significant stab wound to her neck and several defensive wounds.
asserted
woman → have → neck
“The victim was conscious and kept saying she couldn’t breathe.
asserted
she → keep → ?
The initial officer asked the victim who did this and she replied, ‘Michael did it.’
asserted
Michael → ask → it
The victim then went unconscious and the officer realized that she had no pulse.”
asserted
she → go → pulse
Paramedics rushed her to St. Michael’s Hospital, but she died two days later.
asserted
she → rush → Hospital
This past February, the ORB gave Nowaczek-Said a conditional discharge that required him to report not less than twice monthly to the person in charge of Toronto’s Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH).
asserted
that → give → Addiction
Other conditions included that he abstain from the non-medical use of drugs, alcohol and other intoxicants, “submit samples for testing for same,” and agree to prescribed treatment.
asserted
he → include → treatment
Nowaczek-Said, who has criminal convictions related to previous domestic relationships, reported once fighting with a former girlfriend, who bore his child.
asserted
who → have → child
“Mr. Nowaczek-Said tied her to a chair and threatened her with a gun.
asserted
Said → tie → gun
As a result, he was charged with several offences and received a penitentiary sentence in 2013.”
asserted
he → charge → 2013
He was hospitalized at CAMH following the NCR verdict from January 2021 until his discharge to community living in November 2023.
asserted
He → hospitalize → November
By the spring of 2023, his “behaviour, participation, and engagement were described as ‘outstanding,’” said the decision.
asserted
decision → describe → 2023
His transition to community living “went very well,” it said.
asserted
it → go → living
“He attended his appointments with the Hospital’s Forensic Outpatient Service, continued to take his oral antipsychotic medication on his own, submitted consistently negative urine drug screen samples and displayed no indications of returning to cannabis or other substance use, and remained free of symptoms of his illness.”
asserted
He → attend → illness
The hospital recommended a conditional discharge as “necessary and appropriate” at a hearing this past February.
asserted
hospital → recommend → hearing
Nowaczek-Said was living with his father, and “considering moving in with his fiancée at some point,” said the decision.
asserted
decision → live → point
Nowaczek-Said, who has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and cannabis use disorder “in sustained remission,” reported to his transitional case manager every two weeks.
asserted
who → diagnose → manager
Visits with his psychiatrist were reduced to once every two months “due to his continued stability.”
But during a meeting with his handlers this past May, “he presented with notable changes in his mental state from the meeting’s outset,” said the decision.
uncertain
decision → reduce → outset
He repeatedly interrupted and dominated the interview, and there was evidence of underlying irritability when challenged.”
When his handlers pointed out the change, Nowaczek-Said “became increasingly defensive,” said the decision.
asserted
decision → interrupt → change
“He insisted that to the contrary, he felt more like himself than he had in a long time and that he was becoming more like the version of himself that he was before he became ill.”
asserted
he → insist → that
On June 2, Nowaczek-Said’s psychiatrist got test results back indicating his patient had not taken his antipsychotic medication “for several days.
asserted
patient → get → days
”
Nowaczek-Said “was adamant that he had been compliant,” said the decision.
asserted
decision → say → ?
In a lengthy phone conversation with his psychiatrist, Nowaczek-Said reported that his father had recently been diagnosed with cancer and things weren’t going smoothly with his fiancée.
asserted
things → report → fiancée
On June 3, after the call with his psychiatrist, Nowaczek-Said “was apprehended by the police at Orr Lake in Simcoe County and brought, initially, to the Georgian Bay Hospital.”
The panel heard Nowaczek–Said had been “roaming the area around Orr Lake while nude, repeatedly going in and out of the water, and screaming about God, including that he was God.”
asserted
he → apprehend → God
He was placed in “mechanical restraints” at some point “due to his level of agitation.”
asserted
He → place → agitation
When the restraints were removed, Nowaczek–Said punched a camera.
asserted
Said → remove → camera
“Multiple staff members and security personnel were required to contain him during what is recorded as a ‘very agitated outburst.’
asserted
what → require → outburst
Mr. Nowaczek-Said was placed back in mechanical restraints and given two injections.
asserted
Said → place → injections
A third medication was later administered when the first two medications did not settle him.”
asserted
medications → administer → him
…and 7 more, not listed.
