Over two weeks, Court of King's Bench Justice Bob Aloneissi will hear Ferzli's application to be found not criminally responsible (NCR) for the stabbing due to his schizophrenia.

It was a breezy, overcast afternoon when RCMP officers made their way into the corn maze. After a few minutes, they came to a small clearing of trampled corn stalks just off the main path. In the clearing — beside a signpost with a puzzle explaining how to find the exit — lay a large man wearing a blue T-shirt and khaki shorts splayed atop another person.

“What’s going on here, guys?” an officer called out. Another ordered the man to roll over and put his hands behind his back. When the man in blue complied, the officers saw he had been lying on a crumpled body with a knife protruding from its neck.

An Edmonton court on Monday saw footage of the arrest of Michael Ferzli, who was charged with second-degree murder for the fatal stabbing of Joseph Farnsworth at the Edmonton Corn Maze on Aug. 27, 2024.

Over two weeks, Court of King’s Bench Justice Bob Aloneissi will hear Ferzli’s application to be found not criminally responsible (NCR) for the stabbing due to his schizophrenia.

Farnsworth, 52, was Ferzli’s roommate at a group home in south Edmonton. Ferzli was living at the facility after being discharged from Alberta Hospital Edmonton, where he had been confined following a court ruling finding him not criminally responsible for a series of previous assaults.

Ferzli had told his treatment team he felt uncomfortable around Farnsworth, Crown prosecutor Wendy Ekert told court Monday. In particular, Ferzli took issue with Farnsworth’s Swastika tattoo and use of anti-Semitic comments. Despite this, Ferzli told his treatment team he was otherwise optimistic about the future, saying he hoped to travel and live more independently.

Ferzli listened quietly to Monday’s proceedings from the prisoner box, wearing a blue blazer over a white T-shirt.

Canadian law allows a person to be found not criminally responsible for a crime if a mental disorder made them incapable of understanding their actions or knowing they were wrong. People found NCR are typically confined in mental hospitals, with their reintegration into the community governed by a provincial review board. Some remain in hospital for much longer than if they’d been sentenced to a jail term.

Ferzli had previously been found NCR for assaulting a patient and a security guard at an Edmonton hospital in December 2018. He was eased back into the community in February 2024, when the Alberta Review Board allowed him to live in a halfway house.

Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Ekert said Ferzli stayed busy while living at the halfway house, working several shifts a week at Walmart and regularly playing rec hockey. He liked to go on walks, telling a friend he was logging 20,000 steps a day in the weeks before the corn maze stabbing. He reported losing 22 pounds.

Some of Ferzli’s behaviour in the lead-up to the stabbing nonetheless concerned his friends and family. He began to show a special interest in numbers, seeing patterns in house addresses and licence plates on his walks. He threw out or donated any clothing that contained the colour red, and began to fixate on saints and angels.

On Aug. 27, 2024, Ferzli skipped his Narcotics Anonymous sponsor’s 20th sobriety anniversary, which the sponsor said took him by surprise. Instead, Ferzli decided to attend a group home trip to the corn maze.

The trip to the corn maze was comprised of 11 people in total, including Ferzli, Farnsworth and a rehabilitation therapist with Alberta Health Services. The therapist said Ferzli chatted normally on the ride to the maze located west of Edmonton, but later became quiet. When a smaller group decided to try a different part of the maze, Ferzli appeared “emotionless and pale” and was shuffling his feet.

When the group stopped to read a sign at a T-intersection in the maze, Ferzli pulled out a knife and began to stab Farnsworth, who fell face first into the corn. The two other members of the group ran. When RCMP found him, Ferzli was still on top of Farnsworth, making slow stabbing motions with an empty hand.

Ferzli was initially silent but began to cry when read his Charter rights. He calmed down on the way to the Parkland RCMP detachment, but cried again when asked to remove his crucifix necklace.

A physician who assessed Ferzli at the Edmonton Remand Centre said he was making references to the number 666 as well as messages in pop songs. One doctor said Ferzli believed the Katy Perry song Roar contained hidden messages directed at him.

The remand doctor diagnosed Ferzli with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder, noting a history of “persecutory and grandiose beliefs.”

An autopsy determined Farnsworth died of “innumerable” stab wounds, many to his neck, the agreed facts state. 

Monday’s hearing also included testimony from Dr. Oghogho Manuwa, a psychiatrist who was part of Ferzli’s treatment team. Manuwa said he initially had few concerns about Ferzli living under supervision in the community, though he noted Ferzli reported feeling overwhelmed and having issues with his roommate at their regular check-ins.

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