Man pleads guilty to killing his brother in 2020 Cambridge murder

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Content warning: This article contains graphic details.

A 30-year-old man from India has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in his brother’s death.

Court heard Sandeep Jassal stabbed his brother Ajay Kumar nearly 100 times on Linden Drive in Cambridge in September of 2020.

Jassal entered the guilty plea Thursday morning at the Kitchener courthouse.

He appeared in-person wearing a white collar short-sleeve shirt with long-black hair tied back.

Due to the pandemic, Justice Paul Sweeny allowed Jassal to sit next to his lawyer, Hal Mattson, in order to better hear the proceeding amid all of the plexiglass dividers.

Court heard Jassal and his 26-year-old-brother were international students at Conestoga College at the time of the incident.

According to the agreed statement of facts read out by the Crown, Jassal showed up at the townhome where Kumar lived with four other roommates.

The crown stated “the roommates had never met Jassal and have never seen him at the residence until the day in question.”

The roommates reportedly saw Jassal wandering outside the townhome for about two hours. That’s when one of the roommates called Kumar and “Kumar told the roommates to let his brother in and he would be home in one hour.”

Court heard one of the roommates took Jassal to Kumar’s bedroom, and stayed outside the door because Jassal “looked drunk.” Another roommate called Kumar concerned and “Kumar told the roommate not to worry and that the accused always looked that way.”

At about 9:55 p.m. everyone was on the third floor in the home and heard screaming from downstairs.

“They went downstairs towards the main level where they observed the accused stabbing Kumar with a knife in Kumar’s room,” read the Crown.

“Both the accused and the Kumar were covered in blood. The accused was observed to stab Kumar several times in the chest.”

Court heard, Kumar was stabbed 97 times.

Before Jassal was sentence he stood up and told the court quietly “I am very sorry for what happened.”

A second degree murder conviction automatically comes with a life sentence.

Justice Sweeny agreed to a joint submission of no parole eligibility for 10 years.

Outside of the courthouse Jassal’s lawyer Hal Mattson called Jassal’s actions “inexplicable.”

“The accused in this case suffered from some mental health issues and it would appear for no reason he attacked his brother with a knife and killed him,” said Mattson. “There’s no way to describe why it happened. But it’s a tragedy for everybody.”

Mattson noted this was a unique case due the fact that Jassal and Kumar were the only two brothers in their family, and all their family members are in India.

“Usually somebody who is accused of something has some family members some friends someone they can converse with or talk to. This young boy has nobody,” said Mattson. “The only person he had to talk to is me.”

Mattson added, Jassal will be serving his prison term in Canada, but will likely be deported to India when he is eligible for parole in 10 years.