Accused cop killer has 'nuanced' understanding of trial, Crown tells fitness hearing

RCMP Const. Shaelyn Yang is seen in this undated RCMP handout photo. Const. Shaelyn Yang, 31, died in an altercation at a homeless campsite in which the suspect was shot and seriously injured. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, B.C. RCMP *MANDATORY CREDIT*

VANCOUVER — A prosecutor says the suspect in the killing of RCMP Const. Shaelyn Yang has an “exceptionally nuanced and sophisticated understanding” of the trial process.

But Colleen Smith says the Crown isn’t taking a position on whether Jongwon Ham is fit to stand trial for first-degree murder.

Ham has been a vocal presence at the fitness hearing in B.C. Supreme Court, which has now adjourned until March 30, but his testimony is the subject of a publication ban.

The hearing has also heard from two psychiatrists who Smith says concluded Ham suffers a psychotic disorder and shared the opinion that he is unfit for trial.

The court has heard that Dr. Mandeep Saini conducted six interviews with Ham in January while Dr. Mario Moscovici, who was called by the defence, conducted a single two-hour interview.

Smith says the evidence of both psychiatrists is “insufficient for a finding of unfitness alone” and the “real question” of fitness will revolve around the evidence from Ham himself.

Ham, who appeared in court in Vancouver on Friday wearing a black shirt and grey suit, is charged with first-degree murder in the stabbing death of Yang.

She died when she tried to speak to a man sheltering in a tent in Broadview Park in Burnaby, B.C., on Oct. 18, 2022.

The defence has not yet made its fitness submissions.

A fitness hearing, or fitness trial, allows a judge to determine if the accused has the mental capacity to understand the charges and is able to meaningfully participate in their own defence, and does not examine their mental state at the time the alleged crime was committed.

The hearing was ordered by Justice Michael Tammen on the day Ham’s judge-alone trial was set to begin in January.

RCMP have said Yang was a mental health and homeless outreach officer who had joined the police three years before her death.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 13, 2023.