Nine days after the jury convicted Dallas Ly from Ontario of second-degree murder for killing his 46-year-old mother, Tien Ly, the convicted killer apologized yesterday, Saturday, and thanked the friends who stood by him over the past two years.

Dallas said softly, "I never got the chance to say I’m sorry during my testimony, and I want to apologize for what I did, and I know I’m not the type to lose control, and I understand it was out of my nature, and I take responsibility for my weakness."

On March 27, 2022, Dallas repeatedly stabbed his mother in the apartment they shared on Carlaw Avenue after Tien, a nail salon owner, returned home from work.

During the trial, Dallas testified that he told his mother he would move in with his aunt, and when his mother got angry and started shouting at him, threatening to kill him and his aunt before hitting him, Dallas said his reaction was to grab a knife and wave it around.

He testified that he had suffered years of physical and mental abuse at the hands of his mother and believed she would actually carry out her threats.

After he stabbed her in the neck and realized he had killed her, he initially didn’t believe what he had done, then panicked afterward, decapitated her, and disposed of her body.

A forensic psychologist testified for the defense that evaluated Dallas, stating he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at the time due to ongoing abuse and was acting in self-defense against what he believed to be real threats, but the Crown argued that he intended to kill his mother as a form of revenge.

The jury convicted Dallas of second-degree murder just one day after deliberations, rejecting the defense's argument that he was provoked.

It is worth noting that the automatic sentence for a second-degree murder conviction is life in prison, but the judge must decide the period of ineligibility for parole between 10 and 25 years.

Jay Spare, the Crown attorney, said that 15 years would be appropriate given that the victim was Dallas's mother, who was brutally murdered in her home with multiple stab wounds, and her head was then severed, her body taken and dumped on the road before Dallas returned to the apartment and found her money and took it.

Spare explained that Dallas, who was only 21 years old at the time, had no prior criminal record and was suffering from some mental health issues at that time, although there was a dispute about whether he was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder at that time.

She said, "It was an undisputed fact that he was abused by his mother, and he is now taking medication and receiving treatment."

It was reported that although he admitted to taking money from his mother when he left the apartment, the money was not spent.

Greenwood urged the judge to consider Dallas’s character.

The attorney added that Dallas also mourned the death of his father after his mother told him of his passing, only to learn through the criminal proceedings that his father was still alive.

The lawyer affirmed that Dallas has opportunities for rehabilitation.