Wendy Lahay’s dying declaration — just before midnight as Valentine’s Day approached four years ago — was that she still loved her son, Michael Lahay, even as he stabbed her some 30 times while in a cannabis-induced psychotic rage in her Monck Road home in Ramara Township.
Today, 34-year-old Michael Lahay will leave prison a free man after being sentenced to time served plus a day by Superior Court Justice Jill Cameron on Thursday in Newmarket.
Thursday’s outcome was expected following a December court appearance in Barrie that laid out the conditions of a joint submission after Lahay had pleaded guilty to manslaughter with an accompanying sentence of seven years.
Lahay’s pre-sentencing custody effectively met the release threshold when significant enhancements were accounted for because of the harsh conditions in jail, court heard.
Lahay, who was 30 when he killed his mother in 2021, had been originally charged with first-degree murder.
Wendy, a mother of three, was 47 when she died. Her husband, Paul Alexander, survived the attack, fending off his stepson by hitting him with a frying pan, while also trying to stop the attack on his wife.
“(A number) of factors were considered in pivoting to manslaughter from murder,” Crown attorney Sonny Dudani told court in Barrie on Dec. 12.
Michael Lahay was also charged with aggravated assault for the attack on his elderly stepfather.
“In a flash of time, we lost a mother, brand-new grandmother, wife, soulmate, daughter, sister and special friend,” her family posted in her memorial notice in 2022 to mark a year since her death. “We are left with a gaping hole in our lives.”
Lahay’s family supported the joint resolution and were in court in Barrie and again in Newmarket.
In Barrie, court heard details of disturbing behaviour in the weeks and months leading up to the fatal attack, but that concerns about his condition had abated.
On the night of the grisly attack, court heard that Michael Lahay had ingested up to a dozen cannabis-infused brownies.
Michael Lahay had various mental health concerns that had waxed and waned since childhood and that he coped with by self-medicating with cannabis edibles.
Lahay will be on probation for three years and is subject to a lifetime weapons ban.
