Mistrial Declared in Calgary Case After Jury Deadlocks on Murder Charge

A high-stakes murder trial in Calgary, Alberta, ended in a mistrial on Wednesday after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict following five weeks of testimony in the Court of King’s Bench. The case centered on the death of a mother who was killed by her son, Alex Xu, near a local hospital in an incident that sparked a stark divide between claims of drug-induced psychosis and premeditated anger.

Presiding Justice Robert Armstrong declared the mistrial after the jury indicated it could not overcome its deadlock, leaving the legal future of the case in limbo. The proceedings, which attracted significant attention, pitted the defense’s argument—that Xu was experiencing a terrifying, LSD-fueled hallucination—against the Crown’s insistence that the act was a deliberate expression of rage.

Key evidence presented during the trial revealed that the incident occurred after Xu’s parents brought him to the Foothills Medical Centre due to erratic behavior. Moments later, he fled the emergency room, with his mother following him across the street to a residential area. It was between two houses that Xu admitted to striking his mother with a large rock.

During his testimony, Xu described a harrowing sensory experience, claiming that his mother’s appearance had shifted into a nightmarish, distorted visage.

“I looked back at her face and it was monstrously deformed in a spiral-like pattern,”

— Alex Xu, Defendant

He further told jurors that he compared the distortion to imagery from a Japanese horror series, Uzumaki, and that his reality had shattered in that moment.

“I screamed out loud … I punched where her face should be, she’d fallen over, lost her balance. I kicked her head. I picked up a nearby rock and I struck her head twice,”

— Alex Xu, Defendant

Xu testified that he believed he was a victim of a demonic entity at the time of the attack, stating,

“That’s what my mind perceived, like a demonic entity had just come out of nowhere and was going to eat my soul.”

— Alex Xu, Defendant

The Crown prosecutor, Vicki Faulkner, countered these claims by arguing that Xu’s testimony was a fabrication designed to mitigate the gravity of his actions. Prosecutors maintained that the defendant was not acting under a delusional state caused by hallucinogens, but rather out of long-standing anger toward his mother. The prosecution pointed to Xu’s repeated confessions made to witnesses and police immediately following the attack as evidence of his cognizance.

The mistrial now forces the Canadian legal system to determine whether to proceed with a retrial. As the case concludes for now, it remains a grim illustration of the intersection between mental health, substance use, and the judicial process. For the family of the accused, the developments reflect a tragic trajectory that began with a desperate attempt to seek medical intervention at a hospital, only to end in a homicide investigation that has left Calgary jurors deeply divided.