The man accused of murdering a St. Albert teen previously served prison time for breaking into a home and stabbing a pregnant woman, parole documents obtained by Postmedia show.
Kaj Alexander Randall, 28, was charged earlier this month after two teen girls were stabbed in a home in St. Albert.
One of the two attempted murder charges he faced was upgraded to first-degree murder after one of the girls, 17, died of her injuries. The names of both victims have since been placed under a publication ban.
The attack comes less than two years after Randall was released from prison for a different stabbing.
According to a September 2022 Parole Board of Canada decision, Randall broke into a St. Albert family’s home in January 2016. He went upstairs to the couple’s bedroom and repeatedly stabbed the woman in the back.
“The victims were attacked in their home while sleeping in bed, with their children in the house,” wrote parole board member Lesley Monkman. “The female victim was pregnant at the time she was stabbed and the male victim required stitches.”
The parole board did not specify a motive for the attack, but stated Randall had been a cocaine dealer from a young age, and that the violence was a “direct result” of a $15,000 drug debt. Police said the victims and Randall were strangers.
Randall was arrested in 2017 after a lengthy police investigation. In October of that year, he was found guilty of breaking and entering to commit an aggravated assault and sentenced to five years in prison. He was denied parole — which offenders can typically seek one-third of the way through their sentence — before being granted statutory release.
Most federal prisoners automatically receive statutory release two-thirds of the way through their sentence, to allow correctional authorities to monitor them in the community.
Randall’s release was first revoked in September 2021, after a urinalysis tested positive for cocaine and THC. He was also spotted drinking alcohol in a restaurant with friends, in breach of his release conditions.
Randall was granted statutory release a second time in May 2022. A few months later, the parole board learned he was present during a machete attack.
Randall said the victim was a friend and denied involvement in the violence. He was arrested a short time later for breaching a condition not to associate with people in the “drug and gang subculture.”
Randall was not charged with any additional crimes related to the incident, however, and by the time of the September 2022 decision, he had just under a month until his warrant expiry date — the last possible day a prisoner can be held in custody.
‘Can’t even begin to imagine’
The two girls were stabbed in a home in St. Albert’s Riverside neighbourhood around 10 p.m. July 18. Randall was arrested two days later after a police manhunt.
Police said Randall and the victims knew one another but did not specify the relationship.
A friend of the victim’s family was shocked by the details of Randall’s prior conviction.
The friend, who Postmedia is not identifying because of the publication ban, knew Randall had been in jail previously, but did not know it was for a serious offence.
“If he were properly charged to begin with OR if he were properly dealt with after his many breaches then maybe today we would still have (the victim) in our lives,” she said in an email.
She added: “I can’t even begin to imagine why he would do what he did.”
Randall’s next court date is Aug. 12 in St. Albert. He remains in custody.
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