A St. John’s man has changed his plea to guilty in connection with the death of his grandmother more than three years ago.
Thirty-one-year-old Brandon Tobin was charged with manslaughter after 82-year-old Mildred Brake died in her Mitchell Court home on March 16th, 2022.
Brandon Tobin being brought into court (VOCM News)
But in Supreme Court this afternoon he admitted causing his grandmother’s death when he attacked her in a drug-fuelled rage on the night in question.
The autopsy concluded she died of blunt force trauma to her chest consistent with someone stomping or kneeling on her.
According to the agreed statement of facts, the effect of the cocaine and a half dozen other drugs in Tobin’s system was exacerbated by seizures caused by a dirt bike crash a year earlier.
Court heard that Tobin knew such a mixture drove him to be angry, disoriented and violent, as he had earlier attacked his girlfriend under the same circumstances.
That, in the eyes of the law, made him criminally negligent of manslaughter, which means he caused Brake’s death without intention to kill her.
Tobin was visibly distraught and shaking in the prisoner’s docket as he was convicted today.
The sentencing hearing is set for early February.
