After an 8 month hiatus, a trial has resumed for Scott Matheson, who is charged with one count of second-degree murder after admitting to beating and asphyxiating his 64-year-old neighbour to death in September 2021, before fleeing the Island.
In an agreed statement of facts from when the trial started in November 2024, Matheson admitted to delivering either multiple blows to Robert Dobronay's neck or one forceful blow causing "massive fracturing," before putting the man into a choke-hold. He then used fabric and electrical tape to gag Dobronay, and used rope to bind his wrists and feet together before leaving Dobronay's apartment.
The case was adjourned for the past several months due to the defence pleading that Matheson should be found not criminally responsible due to mental disorder, which prompted forensic psychiatrist Dr. Mario Moscovici to interview him three times for a criminal responsibility assessment starting in early 2025.
Moscovici stood as a witness on Friday, Aug. 8, explaining his findings after his interviews with Matheson, assessing that he likely suffers from bipolar disorder or schizoaffective disorder,
"Typically, as is the case for Mr. Matheson, it impacted his sleep, increased level of energy, caused disorganized thinking, and in severe cases during a mood episode, it can also cause psychotic symptoms," said Moscovici. "That means a break from reality, typically with hallucinations. So this is when an individual experiences stimuli without anybody being in the room."
In Matheson's case, Moscovici said, at the time of the murder he believed he was seeing demons, thought Dobronay was poisoning him, thought he was "the chosen one," and that he was being watched through the internet.
"This planet also extended from the third dimension to the fifth dimension too, right? It's a deep thing. My spirituality, life's pretty crazy, man. There's 100,044 of us. I'm one of them. We're an extension through, so in the universe, the planet rhythm," said Moscovici, quoting Matheson during a police interview a few days after the murder, using it as an example of his disorganized thinking at the time.
Complicating the diagnosis, however, is Matheson's extended history of substance abuse, which Moscovici said could contribute to potentially severe stimulant-use disorder, cannabis-use disorder, alcohol-use disorder, opioid-use disorder and steroid-use disorder. Matheson is believed to have used methamphetamine within 24 hours of the murder.
"Crystal methamphetamine, as an example, exacerbates symptoms, and they tend to accelerate the development of symptoms from sometimes baseline – what has occurred in the past – all the way to extreme symptoms," he told the court.
One issue brought up by crown lawyer Alexandra Pace was that Matheson could have been malingering – or exaggerating or feigning his symptoms – as another doctor had that concern in a past assessment, however Moscovici said Matheson was consistent in his claims in a way someone who was exaggerating wouldn't be – though he did admit it is a "complicated picture" and "we have to be humble as psychiatrist that this is not a precise science."
According to the Canadian Criminal Code, a defendant can be found not criminally responsible if they committed a crime while suffering from a mental disorder that rendered the person incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of the act or knowing that it was wrong.
The trial will continue at a later date.
