The mother of alleged first-degree murderer, Farshad Badakhshan, feared for her life while she lived with her son in 2005, a Toronto jury heard this week.
Badakhshan, 31, is on trial for the brutal 2010 killing of 23-year-old Carina Petrache, a former Ryerson criminology student.
Badakhshan’s defence team called Badakhshan’s mother, Sedigheh Moradi, to testify for several days last week after delivering their opening statement on March 4.
Badakhshan has pleaded not guilty due to mental illness.
On March 6, Moradi tearfully admitted to seeing a drastic change in her son’s behaviour after he dropped out of Dalhousie University and moved to Calgary to live with her.
“I knew my son was sick, I saw it on his face,” said Moradi about her son in 2005.
“Farshad was a nice, kind man. After the sickness he changed and became paranoid.
“I was afraid of him coming into my room at night and hurting me in the dark.”
Justice Michael Dambrot is aiming for a mid-April verdict.
The trial is expected to continue throughout the week.
This story was first published in The Ryersonian, a weekly newspaper produced by the Ryerson School of Journalism, on March 12, 2014.
Bruce graduated from the Ryerson School of Journalism in 2014.