It was only last fall that Michael Calvo was found not criminally responsible for stabbing his partner 26 times in 2023. Both the Crown and defence agreed the 300-pound former construction worker was actively psychotic when he viciously killed Ana Paula Kitterhing De Sousa, 46, and was unable to understand the wrongfulness of his act.
That he was going to a mental hospital and not a prison was hard enough to stomach for the victim's grief-stricken family – they were told only 10 days before the start of Calvo's trial that both the Crown and defence agreed he should be found NCR instead. But this week, following his very first annual hearing before the Ontario Review Board, the family was notified Calvo, 48, will be eligible this year to leave the grounds of CAMH without any kind of direct supervision.
Victim's Family Mounts Campaign to Publicize Shocking Decision
The victim's stepson David and daughter Raquel Margulies have mounted a media campaign to publicize the shocking decision. "It's outrageous," said David Margulies with barely contained anger and frustration. "It's so absurd – he gets to go out in the community completely unsupervised. That can happen within the next five to seven months according to the ORB. It's nuts."
While the Crown had opposed allowing Calvo an unescorted community privilege in this year's disposition, Margulies said the killer's treatment team was unanimous that he's doing well enough to be allowed out of the hospital "indirectly supervised" at some point this year. But don't worry – he must turn in his passport and CAMH will notify the police before he's allowed to leave on his own. The ORB's written decision is expected in a few weeks.
Killer Still Maintains Victims Was CIA or Mossad Spy
While Calvo stared blankly ahead at his ORB hearing, Margulies said he heard nothing that convinced him his stepmom's killer can already be trusted with outings on his own: he heard Calvo still maintains his original delusion that Kitterhing De Sousa was a CIA or Mossad spy and he had to kill her or be killed. Calvo also insists that after he left, an army of secret agents came and stabbed her 25 more times.
"He feels he's in the right. Still. But just because he doesn't have any other delusions, they think 'Hey, we can work with this,'" Margulies said with exasperation. "If somebody told me this story, I'd say there's no way we're doing this in our country, are we? We are. And it's happening and it's nuts and it's crazier than anyone can ever imagine."
Victim's Family Demands to Know How Killer Can Be Considered Safe
Even if the family were to accept that Calvo is genuinely mentally ill, they demand to know how he possibly can be considered safe to be allowed alone in public alone so soon. "This is less than three years after the incident of a 300-pound man stabbing a woman to death 26 times, he doesn't understand the gravity of what he's done, and we're to believe that after sitting in jail for a couple of years and only about three months in this hospital, he's ready to get out into the community?"
How are they supposed to cope with the fact that the man who brutally killed a "vibrant, kind, beautiful spirit" is already well on his way to being set free? "My sister can't sleep. She has severe PTSD. She's just imagining the moment she's some place in Little Portugal, like her mom's old bar, and she sees him there." How is that right? How can that possibly be just?
