Son accused of dismembering mother in Toronto testifies in trial

WARNING: This story contains graphic and disturbing images and details of violence.

A man accused of brutally stabbing and dismembering his mother in an east-end condo before leaving her remains in garbage bags on the street told a Toronto jury that while he came from an abusive home, he never intended to kill his mother.

Dallas Ly, 23, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder of his mother Tien Ly. He took the stand Wednesday, telling the court it was never his intention to kill his mother on the night of March 27, 2022.

"I started seeing red, and before I knew it I lost it. I started to swing at her," Ly said.

Tien Ly, 46, was stabbed 27 times before she was decapitated and her body parts placed in three garbage bags, autopsy reports revealed. The mother lived with her son in a condo building on Carlaw Avenue and Dundas Street East. She suffered a deep stab wound on the left side of her neck, along with other wounds found on her face, neck, and arms.

Toronto police were notified the next day, on March 28, 2022 after a passerby discovered remains in a garbage bag, near the intersection of Eastern Avenue and Berkshire Avenue, west of Leslie Street.

Shortly after 8 p.m. on March 27, when his mother returned home from work, Ly said that he had informed her about plans to move out to live with his aunt. His mother became enraged and had a "furious look" on her face, he said, and began to shout at him in Vietnamese.

Ly claimed that she had threatened to kill both him and his aunt, and told him that he owed her $25,000 in rent. Ly, who was 21 at the time, then went to his bedroom to gather himself and grabbed an already packed bag of clothes, court heard.

He said his mother then yelled at him, "Come here right now, and if you don't, I'm going to beat you to death."

Ly said the two had a confrontation at the front door of their condo. He had asked his mother to move away from the door to let him leave but she refused.

He said that his mother told him, "I hope I see you hungry and homeless on Yonge Street. When you go to your grave, I'm not going to come visit you. I hope you both die," referring to him and his aunt.

He said that's when his mother began to punch him in the jaw.

Ly then started to swing at her with a hunting knife. When the knife landed in the middle of her neck, she fell to the ground, he said.

At that moment, Ly said he was in disbelief and went to calm himself down.

He recalled putting her body into garbage bags, trying to clean the apartment and leaving with her remains in a shopping cart. Initially, Ly said he intended to go to Tommy Thompson Park on Leslie Street, but after hitting a curb that caused the cart to fall to the ground, he left her remains on the sidewalk and turned back around.

"My mother began to sprawl out of bags. At that point I realized what I was doing was so wrong and I couldn't keep going through with it," Ly told the court.

"So I decided to hide it on the side of the road and run back home."

When her remains were found, police sought the public's help in finding Ly, who at the time had gone missing, but was not yet named a suspect.

Ly said he had made an attempt to flee the country after he got back home. He first went to Toronto Pearson Airport before heading to Niagara Falls but was denied travel both times. It is unclear why he was denied.

Ly was arrested and charged with Tien's death on April 2.

Ly details abusive relationship with mother

Defence lawyer Marco Sciarra previously told the jury that Ly endured physical, psychological and emotional abuse from his mother.

On Wednesday, Sciarra's co-defence lawyer, Jessyca Greenwood, switched gears from detailing the night of the stabbing and aftermath, to ask about Ly's relationship with his mother.

Ly said that one of his earliest memories was when he was six-years-old and failed an English test, which resulted in his mother slapping his wrist and scolding him.

That's when the abuse escalated, he said, adding that his mother would beat him and leave scars on his body with tools and strikes across the face.

"She would strike me over the back with certain tools. Primarily a backscratcher, shoehorns, slippers and thrown bowls and plates," he said.

Ly told the court that Tien was very strict about his grades, and would call him a "stupid kid," when he would underperform.

"I grew up in Canada, unlike her, and I had a lot of opportunities … I was supposed to be a good and successful child," Ly recalled his mother telling him.

Last week, Justice Alfred O'Marra told the jury it can accept as fact that Ly killed his mother inside their Leslieville condo.

Court previously heard that both Ly and his mother worked at a nail salon at Yonge Street and Davenport Road, that his mother owned.

Dallas Ly's aunt, Huyen Ly, who also worked at the nail salon testified in court last week. She described the mother and son's relationship as "sometimes affectionate."

Huyen told the jury that her sister would at times call Dallas "lazy" and "not intelligent."

Last week, assistant Crown attorney Jay Spare showed the jury several videos of the accused carrying trash bags out of his apartment on the night his mother disappeared.

Spare previously said that Ly admitted that he had killed his mother, despite pleading not guilty to second-degree murder.

Last Wednesday, the jury was shown several videos of the accused leaving his home on Carlaw Avenue just after midnight on March 28, 2022.

Surveillance cameras from the condo building show Tien entering the building just after 8 p.m. on March 27, 2022.

Around midnight, a person appears to enter an elevator pushing a white cart full of garbage bags in hand. The person, dressed in grey pants and a black parka with a hood carrying a black backpack, was identified in court as Ly. When asked Wednesday by the defence if he was the person in the videos, Ly confirmed. He then leaves the building and walks south on Carlaw Street, then east on Eastern Avenue, and returns after a little over an hour without the cart, videos show.

Spare said police officers who were first on scene determined that the garbage bag contained a decapitated female body. A separate bag close by contained a head.

The Crown had also presented key fob records from Ly's building that match the surveillance video timestamps.

More than 300 photos taken during police investigation of the condo were entered into evidence. Investigators testified that they found traces of blood all over the unit, from the entry way door into the master bedroom. Cleaning products were also found sprawled across the bathroom in the apartment unit which was turned upside down, photos show.

In a backpack near the door, they found a hunting knife with red stains along with a pair of black work gloves.

The jury also previously heard from three friends of Dallas Ly, who told the court he sent cryptic messages to them in the hours after his mother's death.

"I want to do so many things Lennan but it isn't fair. Sorry, I am sure you saw this coming ... Live well brother," one message reads.

Ly is expected to return to the stand Thursday, and a psychiatrist is also set to testify about his mental health.