Sam Pazzano

Killer jailed 1 day

Spent 4 years in mental institution

A paranoid schizophrenic who admitted he killed his ex-lover was sentenced to one day in jail yesterday after spending four years and four months in a mental institution.

Darren Mellish, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 1994 stabbing death of former Bayview Playhouse Theatre manager John Beverly "Bev" Wilson, 60, in the laundry room of his Eglinton Ave. W. building.

Mr. Justice David Watt agreed with a joint submission on sentencing from Crown attorney Ann Morgan and defence lawyer David Healey.

Watt said Mellish has served the equivalent of a nine-year sentence.

In addition to the one-day sentence, Watt also placed Mellish on three years probation and prohibited him from taking non-medicinal drugs and possessing weapons, ammunition or explosives. Watt also ordered Mellish to continue psychiatric treatment.

Watt noted three juries had found Mellish unfit to stand trial in the past four years. However, once he began taking anti-psychotic medication, he made "remarkable progress."

Mellish, a former street hooker, had a six-year relationship with Wilson that ended in 1994 when the theatre manager retired, telling Mellish he had a terminal disease.

Even after their relationship ended in 1994, Mellish was paid for housecleaning at Wilson's home.

"If we had gone to trial, I don't think he would have gotten a longer sentence for manslaughter," said Morgan.