MANDEL: Toronto mom not criminally responsible for throwing baby down garbage chute
· Toronto Sun
A father’s aching pain filled the courtroom as his baby son’s mother was found not criminally responsible for throwing little Azuri Edwards-Bacchas down an eighth-floor garbage chute to his death.
Azuri was just four months old, court was told, when his mother heard voices commanding her to throw him down on the morning of Nov. 20, 2024. On Wednesday, Karessa Edwards, 31, was found not criminally responsible by Superior Court Justice Jane Kelly, who accepted an uncontested psychiatric report that she was “floridly psychotic” at the time and couldn’t appreciate the moral wrongfulness of her actions.
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Mental illness may explain an incomprehensible crime. But it doesn’t ease the sorrow of those left behind.
“My son — I only have pictures now — a frozen piece of time to remind me of how it was when you were here and mine,” wrote Sadiki Bacchas, his words read aloud by Crown attorney Elizabeth Jackson. “I see your beautiful eyes each time I close mine. How I wish I could change the course of time.”
Mom heard voices before incident: Psychiatrist
The father’s tears began to fall as his words echoed in the stillness of the court. The mother, in a prison-green sweatshirt and black head scarf, showed no emotion at all.
Court heard he’d left to run errands at 8:23 a.m. that morning and his baby boy was alive and well and being fed by his girlfriend in their Roselawn Ave. apartment.
According to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Mark Pearce, Edwards reported hearing voices telling her to throw Azuri down the garbage chute; she ignored them at first, but then followed their command.
Edwards told Pearce that when she realized what she’d done, she immediately went in after him — but she couldn’t see him and returned to her apartment alone.
Court heard that when Bacchas called to check on Azuri, Edwards told him she didn’t know where he was — perhaps with her mom. But the grandmother said she didn’t have the baby.
Imagine his panic at the time.
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Baby’s body found in dumpster
When the dad arrived home, court heard that Edwards suggested Azuri might be in the garbage chute. Bacchas raced down to the garbage room where he found some of his son’s baby items. He called Toronto Police.
At 11:46 a.m., they found Azuri’s dead body inside the garbage dumpster.
An autopsy concluded Azuri died of “blunt-impact injuries sustained from being thrown down the garbage chute or as a consequence of compression by the compactor mechanism in the garbage bin or by blunt-impact injuries inflicted before the infant was thrown down the garbage chute.”
The psychiatrist’s report detailed Edwards’ long history of mental illness beginning in her mid-20s and a diagnosis of schizophrenia and moderately severe cannabis-use disorder.
Edwards, the mother of a daughter born in 2015, was first diagnosed with depression in 2018 after a boyfriend died in a motorcycle accident. In 2021, she was charged with assault after spraying a chemical at her daughter’s father and was convicted in May 2025.
In 2022, she was twice admitted involuntarily to a hospital after becoming aggressive at her parents’ home. She was diagnosed with substance-induced psychosis after using 3 grams of cannabis a day.
Edward’s mom applied for custody of other child
The Children’s Aid Society documented that Edwards should not care for her daughter while unsupervised.
Court heard that in March 2023, the young girl called 911 after her mom was screaming and breaking things, claiming people were spying on her. Edwards was hospitalized involuntarily and once again diagnosed with cannabis-induced psychotic disorder.
Edwards’ mom sought full custody of her granddaughter. The CAS closed the file on Nov. 1, 2024, but Bacchas didn’t know Edwards was not to be alone with her daughter when she visited them every other weekend.
When their son was born in July 2024, he told police that a hospital social worker advised she knew of Edwards’ history. Bacchas said he’d be there to support her and they took their baby home.
Where was child welfare? Why did no one step in to protect this helpless baby?
‘Always know daddy loves you’
Now medicated, Edwards will be hospitalized and under the jurisdiction of the Ontario Review Board, which holds annual hearings to determine treatment and when she can be safely released. In the meantime, she won’t have unsupervised access to her daughter until the ORB determines she’s well enough.
Shockingly, court heard the 11-year-old hasn’t been told what her mother did and CAS is standing by the grandmother’s decision not to tell her. So she was denied her only chance to tell the court about her baby brother.
It was left all to a grieving father.
“The angels came and took my only son, it’s really not fair. They took my one and only son, my future, my life, my heir,” Bacchas wrote, words that brought the judge to tears as well.
“I know you’re watching from above and seeing my pain is true. Please, my son, always know daddy loves you. I am so proud of you, my little Azuri. Rest well.”