Stress led to 3 stabbings by Mariam Makhniashvili's fatherAllison Jones, The Canadian Press: Friday, May 13, 2011
Vakhtang Makhniashvili, seen here with wife Lela, was charged with attempted murder and aggravated assault for allegedly stabbing two people on November 4, 2010.
Photo Credit: Aaron Lynett, National
TORONTO- The father of a missing young woman admitted Friday to stabbing three people because he thought they were either involved in his daughter's disappearance or behind an unflattering newspaper article.
Vakhtang Makhniashvili, 51, pleaded guilty earlier this week to three counts of aggravated assault in two separate incidents and the facts about those stabbings were read out in court Friday.
About eight months after the Georgian immigrant's then-17-year-old daughter Mariam vanished in September 2009, Makhniashvili banged on the door of the apartment across the hall, yelling about his neighbour being responsible for Mariam's disappearance.
His neighbour, Sean Ure, who was in the apartment with his four-year-old daughter and other family and friends, opened the door and Makhniashvili forced his way inside.
Makhniashvili drew a six- or seven-inch butcher knife from his belt and stabbed Ure in the abdomen, cutting his liver and the front wall of his stomach.
Makhniashvili continued through the apartment, screaming about his daughter. Ure's friend convinced him to leave, and as he was exiting he dropped a homemade sheath on the floor. He bent down to pick it up and the friend slammed the door on Makhniashvili's hand and pulled the knife away from him.
Makhniashvili's lawyer, Calvin Barry, said his client was under additional stress at that time because female human remains had just been found, though they later turned out not to be Mariam.
"He feels very bad for what has happened," Barry said outside court.
Barry will be asking for a sentence of less than two years so he can serve his time in a provincial facility with better programs for him rather than a penitentiary, "with a lot of more hardened criminals."
"I don't seem him as a lost cause," Barry said.
After Makhniashvili was arrested for the first stabbing he was released on bail a few days later, being sent to live with David and Delores Langer, who agreed to act as his sureties.
But after about one month the Langers asked the court to be relieved of their duties because Makhniashvili wasn't abiding by their rules. Makhniashvili has previously said he was suspicious of the Langers - David Langer is a private detective - as they had not met before the couple offered to post his bail.
Makhniashvili was instead released into the custody of his wife and he was placed under house arrest and was ordered not to have any weapons.
A few months later, in early November, Makhniashvili showed up at the Langers' house and stabbed David Langer in the stomach, cutting his small intestine. Langer also ended up needing 10 stitches on his hand.
Makhniashvili said he thought the Langers were behind an unfavourable newspaper article about his family the week his son disappeared for a night.
Langer struggled with Makhniashvili and fell backwards, fracturing and dislocating his shoulder, which later had to be repaired with surgery and now has two metal pins in it. When Delores Langer tried to intervene Makhniashvili stabbed her right through her forearm.
She threw a loose porch tile at him, he threw the knife at her then left. Makhniashvili drove to a police station and turned himself in, telling the officer at the front desk, "I just stabbed someone."
He will be back in court July 26 for a sentencing hearing. In the meantime the court has ordered a psychiatric assessment, and the defence has also retained experts to evaluate him.
The Makhniashvili family, originally from the Republic of Georgia, had only been in Toronto for three months when their daughter disappeared. The parents lived in Los Angeles for five years before moving to Toronto, while Mariam and her brother lived with their grandparents in Georgia.
At an update one year after Mariam's disappearance, police appeared stymied, saying they were no closer to finding her than they were when she vanished.
They said there was no evidence to suggest that she had been abducted, that she was depressed or suicidal, that she ran away or that she fell victim to an accident.
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