A Waterloo man was “motivated by compassion” when he strangled his father to death, a Kitchener judge said Wednesday as she handed down her sentence.
Justice Pamela Borghesan sentenced Adam McCabe to two years in jail, less one day, to be followed by three years of probation.
The Crown had been seeking a 10-year prison sentence, while McCabe’s lawyer had suggested that Borghesian give his client three to five years in prison.
McCabe had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in connection with the 2016 death of his father Ronald Morgan McCabe, who was living at the AR Goudie long-term care home in Kitchener.
According to court documents, Ronald Morgan McCabe was in what family members described as a vegetative state, and could only communicate through thumbs-up and thumbs-down gestures.
Adam McCabe had been drinking and believed he was carrying out his father’s wishes when he shoved a towel into Ronald Morgan McCabe’s mouth and strangled him to death.
Borghesan described the killing as “a violent act, inflicted on an utterly defenceless man,” but noted that Adam McCabe was suffering from delusions and other mental health issues, and believed his father was being mistreated.
McCabe is expected to serve the jail portion of his sentence at the St. Lawrence Valley Correctional and Treatment Centre, which is the only provincially run facility meant for correctional inmates with mental health issues.
Once he is released from jail, he will live with his mother while he is on probation.
With reporting by Max Wark
