Johan Klassen’s admission in a police interview that he stabbed his father to death with a pocket knife to “put him out of his misery” will be allowed in trial.

Justice Gerald Allbright ruled Tuesday afternoon he believes Klassen was of operating mind when he made the admission, therefore the videotaped interview with police can be admitted as evidence.

Allbright said while he believes Klassen has schizophrenia and has been diagnosed with bipolar and psychosis, he believes he was of operating mind during 80 to 90 per cent of the interview, specifically when he told the constable he killed his dad.

The remainder of the time in which Klassen was not of sound mind was when Klassen goes on what Allbright described as an “unfollowable soliloquy” in which he refers to being a soldier.

The two-and-a-half hour interview with Cst. Kevin Sabey was played during a voir dire, a trial within a trial to determine if evidence should be allowed in the trial proper. The Crown argued Klassen was of operating mind during the interview while the defence said his mental state deteriorated at some point and that it’s difficult to determine exactly when that happened.

Klassen is charged with second-degree murder in the death of his father, Johan Klassen Sr., who was found dead in his Kerrobert apartment in Nov. 2016. Klassen also admitted to Sabey he stole a semi and drove it into a slough. RCMP say he was involved in a six-hour standoff before being arrested.

In the interview, Klassen told Sabey his anger for his father was mounting because his dad was an alcoholic who beat him, his brothers and his mother, who had recently died. He said he killed him after his father wouldn’t allow him to borrow his truck keys.

He then changed his reasoning and told Sabey he killed his father because his dad wanted to die and was getting treated poorly by the farmers he worked for.

“Dad comes home crying to me every night,” he said. “(He says) ‘I don’t want to live anymore. I don’t want to live anymore.’ All he ever (does) is cry to me and says, ‘I wish I was dead,’” he told Sabey.

Klassen re-enacted how he said he killed his father and said before he stabbed him, he stomped on his head to “kill the nerves” so his father wouldn’t suffer, adding he would never make anyone suffer.

When Sabey left the room Klassen appeared agitated then began pacing and ranting nonsensically.

Allbright said Sabey didn’t coerce or use any trickery in the interview with Klassen to illicit a confession.

“I don’t think an interview could have been done with any more civility or any more tact than Mr. Sabey did in this matter,” Allbright said.

He also told Klassen he appreciates his respectful conduct in court and said Klassen has done his best to function amid very difficult circumstances in his life.

“I have a considerable amount of empathy for what Mr. Klassen has gone through,” Allbright said.

The case is scheduled back in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday.