Kitchener-Waterloo
A former University of Waterloo, Ont., studentwho faced attempted murder and terror charges has pleaded guilty to aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm and assault with a weapon related to the classroom stabbings of an instructor and two students in June 2023. Five days in October have been set aside for sentencing.
Sentencing for Geovanny Villalba-Aleman, originally charged with attempted murder-terror, is in October
Aastha Shetty · CBC News
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Warning: This story contains distressing details:
A former University of Waterloo, Ont., studenthas pleaded guilty to four charges in connection withthe stabbing of an instructor and two students duringa gender-studies class inJune 2023.
Geovanny Villalba-Alemanappeared in a Kitchenercourt on Monday morning.
He pleaded guilty to:
- Two charges of aggravated assault.
- Onecharge of assault causing bodily harm.
- One charge of assault with a weapon.
Two studentsand an instructor were stabbed in Hagey Hall on June2023. Police called it "a hate-motivated incident related to gender expression and gender identity." A third student was also almost stabbed while trying to flee.
The former student, who was 24 at the time of the attack, had been charged with attempted murder andmischief and also faced terrorism charges.
In court on Monday, he worea blue striped, button-down shirt and dark pants with glasses.
He asked the judge to explain each of the four charges multiple times before pleading guilty. His lawyer noted that the man'sfirst language is Spanish and it would have been ideal to have a translator present, but one wasn't requested by thedefence in time for Monday's plea date.
Sentencing will be carried out over fivedays in October, when the judge will hear victim impact statements and sentencing submissions from prosecutors on the terrorism charge.
Evidence presented in court
Crown lawyerArmin Sethipresented evidence to Justice Frances Brennan during the plea hearing on Monday.
Sethi read aloud lines from a manifesto policefound among Villalba-Aleman'sbelongings afterthe arrest. The manifestoreferencedAnders Behring Breivik and Brenton Tarrant,and said the two convicted terrorists behind the 2011 Norway attacksand the 2019Christchurch mosque attack, respectively, "did nothing wrong". The manifestowent on to say he wants to protect the freedom of education and is tired of the "woke agenda."
Sethialso played audio recordings of the lecture from the June 2023 attack. Those present in the court heard the very moments the ex-studentwalked into the gender-studies class and spoke to the instructorbefore pulling out two large kitchen knives and attacking her. Screams from the instructor and the students fleeing the classroom were recorded, along with sounds of some students throwing chairs and other items at the attacker.
After that, Sethi showed images of the injuries to the associate professor and the two students. The associate professorhad slashes on her face and arm;the students had gashes on their arms, torsos and hands.
A photograph of a small, palm-sized Pride flag was also shown, ripped up into several pieces on a table. Investigators found the flag inside the classroom after the attack. It was confirmed that Villalba-Aleman was the one who destroyed theflag but it wasn't known who the flag originally belonged to.
The court was also shown footage from a bodycamera, fromthe officer Villalba-Aleman eventually confessed to while still on campus. The video shows the ex-studentfirst pretending to be a victim of the stabbing attack, describing a perpetrator with the same hair and height as him,before saying "put the handcuffs on me because it was me."His confession was followed by an apology to the university, adding it was "a personal issue".
A portion of a video from the police station following the man's arrest was also presented incourt, with the voice of an investigator talking to himoff camera. In the video, the police officer asks Villalba-Aleman if he would attack officers if they tookhis handcuffs off. In response, Villalba-Aleman said he wouldn't as long as they aren't members of the far left.
Dozens of students in class at time of attack
About 40 studentswere inside the classroom at the time of the stabbings.
A38-year-old female associate professorfrom Kitchenerand two students—a 20-year-old female and a 19-year-old male, both from Waterloo— were takento hospital withserious but non-life-threatening injuries.
Police saida man who was not a member of the class entered around 3:30 p.m. ET on June 28and spoke with the associate professor before attacking her with two knives.
Police said while students were trying to escape, two students were stabbed and there was an attempt to stab a third student.
Officials from the University of Waterloo saidthe in-house emergency alert system didn't work as expected after the stabbings, adding theWatSAFE app had sent an alert to students 90 minutes after the incident.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Aastha Shetty
CBC journalist
Aastha Shetty can be reached via email aastha.shetty@cbc.ca or by tweeting her at @aastha_shetty
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