A manslaughter charge has been laid in a stabbing that left one man dead in an East Vancouver home last year, police said Friday. The homicide occurred near East 6th Avenue and Fraser Street on Sept. 3, 2025. Despite the efforts of first responders, the 54-year-old victim—now identified as Michael Smadu—died at the scene. David Richard Morin, 32, was charged with manslaughter on Wednesday and made his first court appearance Friday. He remains in custody. The Vancouver Police Department confirmed that Morin is the man behind a shocking unprovoked attack on a visitor from Mexico at a downtown Tim Hortons in 2022. Surveillance video of the Jan. 22, 2022, stabbing at Harbour Centre showed Morin approach the victim, who was waiting in line, from behind and stab him multiple times in the back and shoulder. Twenty-five-year-old Miguel Angel Zepeda Machorro was rushed to hospital with life-threatening wounds, but survived. Read more: Vancouver coffee shop stabbing victim speaks out about his terrifying ordeal Morin pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to three years in prison. He was granted statutory release in January of 2024, and at the time Vancouver police warned he “poses a high risk of significant harm to the community.” While living at a halfway house in Vancouver, Morin became the subject of a Canada-wide arrest warrant for allegedly breaching his condition not to consume drugs or alcohol, and was taken into custody again. The VPD issued another public warning when he was re-released about a month later, in November 2024. He was arrested yet again in January 2025 after not returning to his halfway house by curfew. Online court records indicate he was found guilty of being unlawfully at large and sentenced to 20 days in jail. Morin is next scheduled to appear in court on July 3.
