A trans-identified male on trial for murder has admitted to cannibalizing his victim’s corpse after killing him. Gabriella Sears, born Dereck Donald Sears, has been in prison since 2021 for the brutal murder, which took place at his residence in Kelowna, British Columbia.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Sears was first arrested in 2021 and charged with second-degree murder and interference with human remains in the death of 49-year-old Darren Middleton, a friend and occasional employer of Sears.
Middleton’s body was discovered on June 16, 2021, by his partner, Brenda Adams, who went looking for him at Sears’ home after he failed to return from work that evening. Adams found Middleton in Sears’ bathroom, partially undressed and wearing some clothing that did not belong to him. The body was lying next to the bathtub, which had been left running.
Although Middleton reportedly died after receiving a blow to the head, Crown prosecutors revealed that he sustained several additional injuries post-mortem, including the partial removal of his penis and testicles, a deep gash to his throat “so deep Adams could see right inside” and multiple stab wounds. After seeing the dismembered body of her common-law partner, Adams fled the scene screaming.
As she ran from the house, Adams told police that she saw Sears dancing in the middle of the road, “with his eyes closed and his arms in the air,” to no music.
Sears had reportedly begun identifying as a woman just two days before the murder.
The trial began in 2023 but has faced numerous setbacks due to Sears’ lack of cooperation with his counsel. Sears terminated his first attorneys, Jordan Watt and Tom Forss, just 18 days in to the hearings despite their success in having his direct confessions excluded as evidence during the trial. Several months later, Sears parted ways with another lawyer, Mark Swartz, who announced he was no longer representing Sears due to a “fundamental breakdown in the solicitor-client relationship.”
Sears has undergone two lengthy competency evaluations, both of which determined he was fit to stand trial. But the persistent delays resulted in the original judge assigned to preside over the case aging out of her role due to mandatory retirement.
The trial was set to resume in July of 2024, but Sears filed an application to have his legal name changed on the indictment from “Dereck” to “Gabrielle,” citing his “equality rights” outlined in Section 16 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
A new trial officially began on November 4, with Sears once again pleading not guilty.
According to Kelowna’s Castanet, the first court date was spent debating whether a psychiatric assessment Sears was planning to use in his defense could be admitted. The report was prepared last month by Dr. Robert Lacriox, a psychiatrist who concluded that Sears was experiencing psychosis at the time of the murder and may not have understood the gravity of his actions.
Despite previous psychiatric assessments finding that Sears was competent, Lacroix believes that Sears has bipolar disorder and was experiencing a manic episode with psychotic features when Middleton was killed. He said Sears’ symptoms had been escalating in the months prior and were likely intensified by his crystal methamphetamine use.
According to the report, Lacroix’s conclusions were based on interviews with Sears and a review of statements he gave to police after his arrest. In those statements, Sears admitted to striking Middleton in the head repeatedly with a baseball bat, stabbing him in the eye, and removing his testicles.
Sears later told Lacroix that he believed he was following “telepathic instructions from a child ghost” directing him to remove and consume Middleton’s testicles – which had never been recovered by police.
“It would be reasonable to infer that Ms. Sears was incapable of rationally appraising the actual threat that Mr. Middleton posed and incapable of rationally responding to such a threat,” Lacroix wrote, referring to Sears with feminine pronouns. “This incapacity was the direct result of her psychotic symptoms.
“Ms. Sears was similarly incapable of making a rational choice when she removed the testicles. Several of her post-offense statements indicate she lacked an understanding of the moral gravity of her actions.”
Lacroix’s report disagrees with the previous assessments which found Sears had the capacity to understand his actions, and asserts that he should not be held criminally responsible for the murder.
Crown prosecutor David Grabavac is challenging the admissibility of the Lacroix report on the basis that the doctor relied on confessions and statements Sears made to police after his arrest – statements that have already been deemed inadmissible.
Argument over the hotly-contested report is expected to continue through this week, and the trial is scheduled to formally proceed in early December.
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