Sandy Charles

Case record: Sandy Charles

Background

Sandy Charles was a 14-year-old from Saskatchewan, Canada. He lived in Saskatoon and had been institutionalized in a psychiatric hospital in LaRonge, Saskatchewan.

Johnathan Thimpsen was born in an isolated Indian community on Dec. 30, 1987. He was killed on July 8, 1995. His body was found on July 11 in the aspen and cedar woods a few hundred yards from his grandmother’s house on Sinotte Crescent. His throat was slashed and his head crushed. For the accused, the Young Offenders Act barred identification of either boy.

A 7-year-old accomplice was arrested with Charles. The 7-year-old was identified as a cousin of the victim and was turned over to Social Services workers because the child was too young to be charged.

The offence

Sandy Charles stabbed and smothered a 7-year-old boy in La Ronge, Saskatchewan, on 1995-JUL-8. He and an 8-year-old accomplice carved 10 to 15 strips of flesh and fat from the body. Charles took the body parts home, cooked them, and ate them.

After killing the boy, Charles cut strips of skin from his victim and boiled them down. He was fascinated with the horror movie Warlock and its sequel, Warlock II. He watched the movies at least 10 times before the child was killed and mutilated. The mutilations done to the child mirrored incidents depicted in the movie. One media source also quoted The Exorcist.

Charles told the police: "There's a spirit in my room that gave me these thoughts" . He had been contemplating suicide, but a voice told him that it might be just as good to kill someone else.

At his trial in 1996-JUN, a psychiatrist testified that the accused "did not see the victim as human but as an object whose death was necessary to fulfill his deluded plan".

There was no organized Satanic group involved in this murder. Charles was driven by his own delusions and mental illness, rather than by any religious belief in Satanism. The source of the child’s particular delusions were described as being based on the "Gothic Satanism" hoax promoted by the movies.

Investigation

The police arrested a 14-year-old boy and a 7-year-old accomplice after the killing. The arrest of the children highlighted a rise in killings committed by Canadian youths. The accused were arrested nearly 400 miles north of Regina.

The case was discussed as part of a broader increase in youth killings in Canada, alongside other high-profile cases involving 14-year-old girls charged with stabbing a man to death in Calgary, teen-agers arrested for beating a fisherman to death in Prince Rupert, and six teen-agers apprehended for the death of a man on welfare living in a tent in Dawson City.

At a later point, it was reported that a dangerous inmate might be allowed to walk the grounds of his mental health hospital thanks to a new satellite-tracking system.

Arrest and custody

At the time of the initial court proceedings described in the account, Charles was in custody in Saskatoon. A bail hearing was held for the accused last month at the La Ronge courthouse. The account described him entering court and burying his head on his knees for the balance of the proceedings.

Criminal responsibility in Canada begins at age 12. The 7-year-old accomplice was too young to be charged and had been turned over to Social Services workers.

Trial and finding

In November, a hearing was described as determining whether the 14-year-old would be tried as an adult. The Young Offenders Act barred identification of either boy.

In 1996-JUN, a psychiatrist testified that the accused "did not see the victim as human but as an object whose death was necessary to fulfill his deluded plan".

On 1996-AUG-2, Charles was found not guilty by reason of insanity. The judge concluded that Sandy Charles "was suffering from a mental disorder so as to be exempt of criminal responsibility".

Sentencing and mental-health disposition

After being found not guilty by reason of insanity, Charles was transferred to psychiatric hospital LaRonge, Saskatchewan. It was reported that he was institutionalized three years earlier after being found not criminally responsible for the slaying of a seven-year-old boy.

He had not been allowed outside the hospital’s psychiatric ward since March, when it was reported that he escaped from his guards and wandered for 15 hours before being recaptured.

On November 16, 1998, it was reported that a review board at the hospital said he should be allowed to walk the hospital grounds only if he agreed to wear a device that allowed a satellite to monitor his location. Police said Charles was extremely dangerous.

Later court matter: assault on a nurse

On June 26, 2000, it was reported that Sandy Charles was back in court, accused of assaulting a prison nurse. Court was told Charles got into a fight and knocked the nurse unconscious. He was sentenced to one day in jail, already served.

Aftermath and community context

The account described conditions in the community, including poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse, and cultural uprooting. It also described calls that came into a telephone crisis line operated by the La Ronge Native Women’s Council. The account stated that last year the center received calls about 514 children and that two-thirds of the total crisis calls were about children. It stated that there was a need for a full-scale effort to heal families in the community.

The account also described that five people were slain in La Ronge in 1993, giving the town brief statistical notoriety as Canada’s murder capital. It stated that sexual assaults were rife and that La Ronge was plagued by a high rate of suicides, especially among youths. It also discussed access to firearms, with handguns in American inner cities and long guns used for hunting in the north.

For the children who knew Johnathan Thimpsen, the loss was described as painful and troubling. Jaya Ramayya, assistant director at the day-care cooperative where Johnathan had been taken daily by his mother, Cindy Thimpsen, was quoted: "When we think about this, we're just crying all time" . At a ceremony, mental health experts from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band urged children to write short notes to Johnathan and slip them into helium balloons that ascended to the heavens. Ms. Ramayya recalled: "Many wrote, 'We love you, Johnathan'," and "It rained, and so the children noted that Johnathan's tears were falling."

A quote from Michelle Harding, the elected area director for the Metis Nation of Saskatchewan, was included: "We've not only lost Johnathan, but we've lost another child, and possibly a third, and I think sadly about what their lives could have been like, and also I think what could force an innocent child, or should be innocent at 14, to do something so heinous."

The account also included a quote from Barb Riley, a reporter for The Northerner: "Use any word you want -- shocking, scary, frightening," and "but it's something the people here want to address and find answers for, and I think they're starting down that road." It included a quote from Cec Allen: "If not, we won't have any community left." It also included quotes from Irvin Waller: "Another 'disturbing parallel,'" and "he said, is access to firearms, handguns in the American inner cities, long guns used for hunting in the north." It included Prof. Doug Durst, Department of Social Work at the University of Regina, saying: "Having been abused physically and sexually, parents from those schools are not good parents themselves," and "A whole population is caught between two worlds, troubled and confused."

Other details

Charles was described as studious and as taking part in a science fair mounted this year by his seventh-grade class at the Churchill School, a junior high and high school. He was described as raised by a single mother and not considered a trouble-maker by those who knew him.

The account stated that the Warlock series were horror movies describing Gothic Satanist rituals and concepts, including the belief that if a person drank liquefied fat from an unbaptised child, they would gain special powers, in this case the power to fly.

Charles was described in one place as 14, of Saskatoon, SK, Canada, and as stabbing and smothering a 7-year-old boy in La Ronge SK on 1995-JUL-8. The narrative included that Charles cut and cooked strips of flesh and fat from the boy’s body in a ritual inspired by the horror movie Warlock.

The account also included: "One answer appears to be in easing the wretched conditions in aboriginal communities plagued by poverty, alcoholism, drug abuse and painful cultural uprooting." A bail hearing and future adult-trial determination were discussed in the context of a hearing in November.

A separate mention stated: "Sandy Charles was institutionalized three years ago after being found not criminally responsible for the slaying of a seven-year-old boy." It also stated that he had escaped in March and wandered for 15 hours before being recaptured.