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The defense is seeking to have Moss – a former tattoo artist in his late 30s – declared not responsible for a mental disorder that they attribute to brain damage that an expert says caused the psychosis.
David Michael Moss, shown after his arrest on May 18, 2020, for the murder of seven-year-old Bella Rose Desrosiers. Photo by provided
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Warning: this story contains disturbing details, including references to suicide, domestic violence, and child abuse.
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No one disputes that David Michael Moss killed Bella Rose Desrosiers.
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Medical professionals who evaluated him agreed that Moss was experiencing a psychotic episode when he cut the young girl with a pair of scissors.
A judge must now decide whether this psychosis was the result of a brain injury or Moss’s use of marijuana.
Moss’s long-delayed trial for second-degree murder resumed Monday with closing arguments from the Crown and defense.
The defense is seeking to have Moss – a former tattoo artist in his late 30s – declared not responsible for a mental disorder that they attribute to brain damage that an expert says caused the psychosis.
If Moss is found not criminally responsible, he will be confined indefinitely in a forensic hospital rather than a prison.
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During last year’s trial, the court heard how Moss visited Derozierov’s home in southeast Edmonton on May 18, 2020, at the invitation of the girl’s mother. Melissa Derosiers, an acquaintance, said she was concerned about Moss’ mental health and planned to take him to a hospital.
While Desrosiers was reading her daughters a bedtime story, Moss appeared at their bedroom door in her underwear and attacked Bella with a pair of scissors, slashing her neck repeatedly before dragging her downstairs.
Moss testified that he did it because he believed the girl’s father, who had killed himself the previous year, told him to commit the crime.
Rod Gregory, Moss’s defense lawyer, urged Crown Court judge Stephen Manchuk to find his client not responsible, presenting a timeline of previous psychotic episodes that he argued were unrelated to marijuana use.
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Bella Rose Desrosiers, the girl David Michael Moss killed in her southeast Edmonton home on May 18, 2020. Photo provided
Gregory said Mandziuk should accept the evidence of Mark Nesca, a forensic psychologist, who argued that the May 18, 2020 psychosis may be related to a traumatic brain injury Moss suffered in 2004.
Gregory said Moss’s behavior in the immediate aftermath of Bella’s murder was further evidence that someone was suffering from a mental disorder.
“(He) was just sitting on the couch, literally like an automaton, until he was arrested. He doesn’t run, he doesn’t try to escape, he doesn’t talk.
Chasidy Bishop, Gregory’s co-defendant, argued that if Mandziuk found Moss criminally responsible for Bella’s death, he should be convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter because the Crown had not proven he intended to kill the girl.
She noted that while in custody, Moss repeatedly slammed his face into a concrete bench, knocking out teeth and leaving a pool of blood.
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“We see an individual commit brutal acts of self-harm … it just defies logic.”
The Crown, on the other hand, said it successfully prosecuted murder.
Shivani Naidoo-Barrett argued that the fact that Moss was an avid conspiracy theorist — who spoke regularly about vaccines, condensation trails, 5G towers, the government’s role in the COVID-19 pandemic and spiritual awakenings — was not evidence of a mental disorder.
“Although Mr Moss’s belief in spiritual matters and conspiracy theories are not mainstream, they are the views of many,” she said. “This is not evidence of … ongoing psychosis.”
She cautioned Mandziuk against relying too much on Nesca’s evidence, noting Nesca was not a doctor and had less time to assess Moss than Crown experts, who were critical of the brain damage theory. She noted that one Crown expert, a doctor, said that if someone experiences psychosis after a brain injury, “you’ll see it a few years after the injury – not 16 years later.”
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Naidoo-Barrett noted that Moss “significantly increased” his marijuana consumption in the early days of COVID, shortly before the murder. Noncriminal defense is generally not available to people who experience a mental health episode as a result of self-inflicted intoxication.
Moss’ case is next in court on Feb. 3 to set a date for Mandziuk’s ruling, likely sometime in April.
An Edmonton police mental health team examined Moss several hours before he killed Bella, but found no grounds to detain him under Alberta’s Mental Health Act.
jwakefield@postmedia.com
twitter.com/jonnywakefield
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