A defence lawyer with extensive advocacy and experience with mental health will defend a Waterford Hospital patient charged with murder.
Legal Aid’s Mark Gruchy was assigned to the case on Tuesday, and appeared briefly on behalf of his client in provincial court yesterday.
Gruchy asked for and was granted a few weeks to get up to speed on the facts of the case, which by all accounts are horrific.
It’s alleged 30-year-old Thomas Parsley attacked another patient with a weapon at the Waterford around 6 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 19.
Police have not identified the weapon but several sources allege it was a pencil.
The victim, 66-year-old Thomas Poole, was rushed to hospital but died two days later.
Parsley made a brief court appearance the day after the incident, and was found fit to stand trial, but has remained in custody, at the Waterford, ever since.
He was already facing charges of assault with a weapon and uttering threats against a nurse at the hospital two months earlier.
Mark Gruchy
Gruchy’s mental health advocacy, meanwhile, gained him the NL Human Rights Award in 2016.
He’s also been open about his own experience and success of living with bipolar disorder.
The murder case will be called again on February 7.
