Man sentenced to life in prison for fatal 2022 Toronto subway stabbing
Neng Jia Jin stabbed two women on a subway train near High Park Station
A man who stabbed two women on a Toronto subway in 2022, killing one of them, has been sentenced to life in prison for first-degree murder.
Neng Jia Jin, who was sentenced Tuesday in Ontario Superior Court, has no chance of parole for 25 years. He also received a 20 year sentence for attempted murder.
"The impact of Mr. Jin's conduct is profound. No sentence that I impose can adequately compensate for this harm," said Justice Joan M. Barrett.
Jin had pleaded guilty to both charges at a pre-trial hearing in February. In Canada, first-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence without the ability to apply for parole for 25 years, while attempted murder comes with a sentencing range of six years to life.
On the afternoon of Dec. 8, 2022, Jin randomly attacked two women on an eastbound subway train approaching High Park station, stabbing both several times, according to the agreed statement of facts.
He injured a 37-year-old woman, according to the court document, and fatally wounded 31-year-old Vanessa Kurpiewska of Toronto.
Kurpiewska died in hospital shortly after. The other woman — whom Jin stabbed in the abdomen, arm, hand and leg — suffered extensive permanent nerve damage and a physical scar.
Jin did not know the victims, according to court documents.
Over the course of the sentencing hearing, which began last month, five victims were presented to the court, including Kurpiewska's sister, who read a victim impact statement in court on behalf of her family. She said her sister was a kind soul, and her death was a "pure act of evil that took her away and will haunt the family forever."
A witness who tried to save Kurpiewska from the attack told the court in his own statement that the incident had shaken him, causing him to contemplate suicide.
Jin considered killing other people first
Court documents show that several hours after his arrest, Jin gave a videotaped statement to police saying he had made a plan to kill people when he woke up that day.
Jin, a Chinese national, told police after the stabbing that he knew the women were innocent, but he wanted to take revenge after a Canadian doctor damaged his eyesight during a surgery.
He said he'd wanted to sue, but a lawyer told him he couldn't because he had no legal Canadian status, so he wanted to take revenge on other innocent people.
Video evidence showed Jin took a bus to Kennedy station in Scarborough hours before the attack. On the bus ride, footage showed Jin glancing at female passengers.
He took the subway to Royal York station, according to court documents, where surveillance video showed him start to stalk a woman who eventually managed to evade Jin by jumping off a train as it departed, after he had followed her on.
In an impact statement read before the court, the woman said she's been haunted by Jin's stare ever since, and has become anxious in public, paranoid someone may be following her at any time.
Jin spent the next hour going back and forth between west end subway stations before boarding an eastbound car at Islington station where his eventual victims were already riding just before 2 p.m., court documents said.
Soon after, Jin took two knives from a bag he'd been carrying and stabbed Kurpiewska seven times, before moving on to his second victim seated in the back of the car. As he attacked her, a bystander on the train intervened to disarm and subdue him until police arrived.
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