In letters to slain girlfriend's family, Thomas Hamp said he thinks weed caused his psychotic break

This story contains details that some readers may find disturbing

Thomas Hamp says he believed secret police were out to kidnap, torture, and kill him when he fatally stabbed his girlfriend Emily Sanche in February of 2022.

Hamp, 27, is accused of second-degree murder in Sanche's death and took the stand to testify at his Court of King's Bench trial Wednesday.

On Feb. 20, 2022, Hamp believed this secret police, who he believed were conspiring against him, would also torture and rape Sanche.

"Me killing the both of us was a more merciful way for us to die," Hamp said to his lawyer Wednesday.

Hamp said he was previously diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder, but in October 2021 he began to experience delusions and intrusive thoughts that worsened leading up to the stabbing.

He began to believe he was surrounded by pedophiles and that people close to him were conspiring against him in an effort to help secret police that believed he was a predator. He became distrustful of many people close to him and associated the colour green with sexual predators.

The night of the stabbing, he told the court he was pacing around the third-floor apartment where he and Sanche lived. He was paranoid that secret police were waiting in the parking lot outside of the apartment and that recording devices were placed inside the home.

"I was frantic," Hamp said.

He told the court he doesn't remember grabbing the knife as his memory from that night comes and goes in flashes, but he remembers having the knife in the couple's bedroom in case he needed to fend off an intruder or take his life.

He says at one point Sanche came into the room, saw him holding the knife, and screamed. She then ran to the entranceway. Hamp said he doesn't remember stabbing Sanche, but remembers her falling and trying to kick him away.

"I remember seeing the broken handle of the knife," he told his defence lawyer.

Hamp then went to the bedroom, took out a Leatherman multi-tool, and stabbed himself in the chest and once again in the neck.

Prosecutor Cory Bliss presented letters Hamp wrote last year while in custody. Saskatoon police intercepted the letters written to Emily's cousin, Catherine Sanche. In the letter, Hamp spoke about his escalating paranoia in October of 2021.

"I did not believe it at the time, but now I think this paranoia and ensuing psychosis were caused by the weed I was smoking," Hamp wrote.

Hamp told the court he began smoking weed once it was legalized in 2018. By 2021, he was smoking an average of three times a day. He admitted he felt addicted to the substance at the time.

Sanche asked him to stop smoking two days before the attack because she believed it was contributing to his psychosis. He complied.

Police who were first on the scene testified earlier in the week there was no smell of weed in the apartment suite the night Sanche was stabbed.

According to previous testimony, Sanche kept detailed notes of repeated trips to doctors, clinics, and hospitals in an attempt to help Hamp.

On Wednesday, Hamp admitted he wasn't entirely honest during some of those trips. He didn't inform doctors of all of his delusions and downplayed other symptoms, believing he was fine and not wanting to "waste their time."

He also believed taking his medication would brainwash him and would chemically castrate him.

At one point during Wednesday's trial, Hamp admitted to lying to Sanche and the crisis intervention phone line about feeling much better after taking his prescribed amount of medication each day when in fact he hadn't been taking it for weeks.