MANDEL: Apologetic mom killer gets support from his victim’s family

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They’d have every right to hate and abandon him.

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But even as he stood convicted of murdering his mother Tien Ly, severing her head and dumping her body parts by the side of Eastern Ave. like so much trash, Dallas Ly was not alone.

As the 23-year-old killer sat in the prisoner’s box for his sentencing hearing in the downtown Toronto courtroom, several of his friends came to lend their support – including Donovan Comeau, who spent seven months with him at Toronto East Detention Centre and said Ly was “there for me every day.”

But more surprising were the two women allowed to approach him at the end of the hearing before he was handcuffed and taken back to jail.

Since his arrest in March 2022, Ly had been under court order not to communicate with his victim’s family. But that no-contact order has now expired and it was obvious his maternal aunt and grandmother were anxious to finally talk to him. As they spoke to him in Vietnamese, Ly began to cry and the women wept in turn.

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“I didn’t get a translation,” his lawyer Jessyca Greenwood later explained, “but I can indicate they expressed sadness and offered to continue to support him.”

He’s a lucky young man.

Last week, a jury convicted Ly of second-degree murder, taking only a day to reject his story that he stabbed his mother 27 times with his hunting knife because she’d provoked him by hitting and threatening to kill him and his aunt when he told her that he was finally leaving and moving in with her sister following a lifetime of physical and emotional abuse.

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Testifying in his own defence, Ly said his controlling mom would hit him with a wooden back scratcher, leaving scars on his back, when he didn’t do well at school, she’d neglect him and leave him little for food and even lied and told him his father was dead.

His psychiatrist testified Ly was suffering from PTSD at the time – a diagnosis the Crown’s expert said came only after he murdered his mother and not before.

“Your Honour saw him in court over quite a few days testifying – he appeared intelligent, rational and perfectly capable of dealing with the situation he was in,” prosecutor Jay Spare argued.

His maternal aunt Huyen Ly had testified for the Crown, telling the jury that sometimes the relationship between Thanh Tien Ly, a 46-year-old nail salon owner, and her son was affectionate. But she also said her sister would complain the high school drop-out was “lazy” and “not intelligent.”

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She prepared a brief victim impact statement read into court by the Crown, reflecting her pain but also her mercy.

“I feel really sad and miss my sister because of what Dallas has done,” she wrote. “Because Dallas is my nephew and he’s still young, I want to stand here before the court and ask for a sentence that is appropriate for someone who is young.”

Second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence but Superior Court Justice Brian O’Marra must determine how long Ly must serve before he can apply for parole.

“It’s the brutality of the murder and the terrible disrespect to his mother’s remains that leads the Crown to urge a 15-year parole ineligibility,” Spare told the judge.

His lawyer argued that a more appropriate period would be 10-to-12 years and asked the judge not to “crush all hope of rehabilitation.”

Before O’Marra left to consider his ruling, which he’s scheduled to deliver June 26, Ly was offered an opportunity to address the court.

“I want to apologize for the damage I’ve done to my family,” he said. “I’m not the type of person to lose control. I take responsibility for my weaknesses. And I just want to give thanks to the people who have supported me.”

People who even include the grieving family of the woman he viciously stabbed and decapitated.

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