Toronto Star Referrer

Subway suspect was on probation

Man accused of stabbing teen had been sentenced weeks earlier for sexual assault

JENNIFER PAGLIARO AND KELLY SKJERVEN

The man accused of stabbing 16year-old Gabriel Magalhaes to death in Keele subway station had been released by an Ontario court judge on a probation order for several offences, including sexually assaulting a Toronto woman, less than two weeks prior, newly obtained court records show.

Those court records also show the now 22-year-old Jordan O’BrienTobin has been ordered by GTA judges to attend counselling for his “mental health issues” as well as substance abuse.

Taken together, the documents obtained by the Star on Wednesday paint a picture of a young man who, bouncing in and out of homeless shelters, has been before the courts on criminal charges for his entire adult life and continued to commit new offences despite multiple arrests, jail time and a series of probation orders.

Saturday’s arrest appears to be the most brutal escalation in a long string of charges — across the GTA and between two provinces — that include several violent offences, some with edged weapons, and multiple convictions for failing to comply with release orders.

According to Toronto police, Magalhaes was approached in an unprovoked attack and stabbed while sitting on a station bench in the lower level of the busy station around 9 p.m. Saturday.

The documents obtained by the Star on O’Brien-Tobin’s criminal history are not a full accounting of his past charges. The Star has requested the Ontario court system’s public records of his criminal history via the Ministry of the Attorney General. As of Wednesday, the ministry continued to work on the request.

As a result, it is not clear if O’BrienTobin had other Ontario charges; the records also do not include any youth criminal record, if it exists, which is strictly protected by the courts.

On March 10 of this year, an Ontario court judge in Toronto sentenced O’Brien-Tobin to one day in custody with a two-year probation order for several offences, including convictions for sexually assaulting a Toronto woman in October 2021 and failing to comply with a previous release order in April 2022. The judge’s ruling accounted for 100 days served in pretrial custody.

The probation order — which is different from a bail order and being released ahead of sentencing — includes standard conditions like keeping the peace as well as having no contact with the victim, not possessing any weapons, and attending all counselling, assessments or rehabilitative programs for substance abuse and sexual boundaries, as determined by his probation officer.

There is no indication as to what assessments or programs were assigned, if any, nor whether he complied with them.

At the same time as his arrest in the October 2021 sex assault, O’Brien-Tobin was also charged with harassment and robbery of the same victim and with mischief for allegedly damaging an electronic monitoring bracelet. Those charges were withdrawn by the time he was sentenced this month to probation over the sex assault.

Records from a Brampton court show O’Brien-Tobin was previously arrested for assaulting a man in Mississauga with a box cutter on July 10, 2022, and failing to comply with several terms of probation orders in Toronto and Newmarket.

He was sentenced in September to 150 days in jail, 18 months probation, and given a five-year weapons ban. He was also ordered, within 21 days of being released, to seek a diagnosis from a health-care professional for his “mental health issues” as well as attend counselling or rehabilitation for mental health and substance abuse.

The oversight for those conditions would have been the responsibility of his provincial probation officer. It’s not clear if those conditions were met.

Last April, O’Brien-Tobin was arrested for assaulting and threatening a Toronto man. Court records show he pleaded guilty on both counts and was sentenced to 36 days in custody. After being released, he was ordered to comply with the standard probationary conditions as well as to not possess any weapons. The term of those conditions was 12 months from his release.

In 2021, O’Brien-Tobin was charged with assaulting a different man in Mississauga with a pair of scissors. He was also charged with failing to comply with release orders, including a condition that he remain at a North York shelter overnight.

He was sentenced that September to 30 days in custody and was issued a weapons ban.

The Star also obtained a less detailed list of Toronto charges for O’Brien-Tobin that date back to September 2020.

They include additional assaults, theft under $5,000 and public mischief.

It’s not clear from this list how any of the charges were resolved or if they were withdrawn; it’s also not known if they resulted in any additional jail time or probation.

During that time, O’Brien-Tobin’s listed addresses appear to show him bouncing between homeless shelters and periods of living with “no fixed address.”

A probation order is a type of sentence that is an alternative to jail time, allowing an offender to serve a sentence in the community while under the supervision of a probation officer. Probation, which is generally reserved for less serious offences, falls under provincial jurisdiction.

The Canadian Press previously reported O’Brien-Tobin was wanted for allegedly breaching a Newfoundland court order and had a lengthy criminal history in that province, largely for non-violent offences and breaching conditions.

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2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

2023-03-30T07:00:00.0000000Z

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