A judge has “completely” rejected Alpha Henry’s tall tale that his brother was the real killer who slaughtered their devout parents and then doused their bodies in the bathtub with gasoline.
Showing no emotion, Henry listened as Superior Court Justice Joan Barrett shot down every argument advanced by his lawyer Jamie Kopman that tried to pin the blame on Daniel Kwame Henry for the vicious stabbing deaths of their father Colin Henry, 68, and their mom, Veronica, 67 in their Etobicoke home on Sept. 22, 2022.
The judge also found Alpha tried to finish off his younger brother, but Daniel managed to overpower and disarm him, then fled barefoot from the Bergamot Ave. apartment to the nearby gas station, still holding the knife.
“I do not believe the defendant’s account that Daniel is responsible for the death of Veronica and Colin Henry. I completely reject his evidence,” Barrett said. “The case against the defendant is overwhelming.”
But that still isn’t the end of this tragic story.
His lawyer is now seeking to have a psychiatric assessment so he can argue Henry should be found not criminally responsible due to a mental disorder.
Alpha Henry, 30, pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder and one count of attempted murder.
He claimed that he had moved into 27 Bergamot with his parents and brother, Daniel, an Air Canada flight attendant, but the judge found that was “patently false” – he wasn’t on the lease, he didn’t have his own fob and there is body-worn camera footage of Toronto Police escorting the homeless man out of the boiler room of a nearby building where he was obviously living on Sept. 18.
The next day, Alpha was seen trying to gain entry to his family’s building near Islington Ave. and Rexdale Blvd.
The judge said the evidence “overwhelmingly proves” that after entering the apartment building behind another resident, Alpha Henry stabbed his parents between 11:50 a.m. and 12:20 p.m., while his brother was working a flight to Japan. About three hours later, Alpha is recorded on video leaving, now wearing his father’s clothes and disposing of items in the garbage bin outside.
“The formerly estranged and homeless defendant spent the next day-and-a-half coming and going from 27 Bergamot as he pleased using his mother’s fob, his mother’s cellphone and spending his parents’ cash,” Barrett said in her ruling.
Most interesting, she noted, was that he also used his mom’s phone to procure a sex worker.
“It defies common sense and human experience to suggest that the defendant was engaging in this conduct with his parents’ blessing,” she added. “The only reasonable conclusion to be drawn from the evidence as a whole is that Veronica and Colin Henry were both dead.”
And then there was the gasoline.
Video captured Alpha walking to the gas station and buying a jerry can full of gas on Sept. 19, then returning the next day to refill it and buy a second one. He told police the gasoline was for Daniel’s car because it was cheap.
Barrett said his explanation “defies logic.”
“The only logical and reasonable inference from the defendant’s return to the Esso station on the Tuesday afternoon is that he had already doused his parents’ bodies with gasoline but decided he needed more,” she said.
Alpha had claimed he and his parents were praying and waiting up for Daniel to return home from Japan at about 1:35 a.m. on Sept. 21. But when he arrived, he began quarrelling with their mom and then suddenly began slashing at them with a knife.
The judge didn’t believe a word – that in the seven minutes he was in the apartment, his brother managed to attack him, kill his parents, move them into the bathtub and douse them with gas.
Daniel had testified that as soon as he entered the door, Alpha came at him with a knife, yelling, “Die, b—-.”
Barrett found Daniel to be an “honest, fair and forthright witness” and believed he was a victim, and not the culprit.
“The circumstantial evidence is overwhelming,” she concluded. “I have no doubt that the defendant stabbed Daniel in an unprovoked attack as Daniel described.”
The case now returns to court Jan. 17 to hear the defence application for a psychiatric assessment – which Crown attorney Michael Wilson has indicated he’ll oppose.