From the front of a hushed courtroom, the widow of slain Toronto police Sgt. Ryan Russell produced a framed photo of her family and held it up for the man just found not criminally responsible for killing him.

Christine Russell told Richard Kachkar, sitting in the prisoner’s box, it is the last picture of herself, her stricken husband and their son Nolan, now 4.

“Richard, I’d like you to look at us,” she said from an Ontario Superior Court witness box Wednesday.

At that point Justice Ian MacDonnell interrupted. “There is a procedure for victim-impact statements,” he told Crown prosecutor Christine McGoey.

MacDonnell had minutes earlier agreed, at the Crown’s request, to allow the family to read out victim impact statements, though they would usually be tendered at Kachkar’s mental health hearing before the Ontario Review Board (ORB).

But now he called a recess for the Crown to ensure Russell’s statement complied with the law.

When Christine Russell resumed, after the judge apologized for the interruption, she gave a victim impact statement on behalf of her son. She said she’ll save hers for the ORB.

Her 35-year-old husband spent all his free time with their only child, she said. “How would I explain to him that Daddy was never coming home?” she asked, in tears.

“Even at the funeral, he asked, ‘Where’s Daddy? We told him that Daddy was going to a special place called Heaven.’”

Her statement was the one of the last acts in an emotional drama that began on a snowy early morning two winters ago.

Kachkar ran barefoot from the Good Shepherd homeless shelter on Queen St. E. and stole an idling snowplow from in front of a Regent Park Tim Hortons, taking it on a demented joyride and killing the promising officer.

Early Wednesday afternoon, a jury of six men and six women found Kachkar, 46, not criminally responsible by way of mental illness for Russell’s death.

The jury had begun deliberating Monday afternoon.

As the six men and six women filed into the courtroom at around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Christine Russell bent forward, looking down. She held the same position after the verdict was delivered, and didn’t rise as the jury left.

Kachkar will be remanded in custody for a disposition hearing before the Ontario Review Board, which will almost certainly lock him up a secure hospital for treatment. His case will be reviewed annually. He could be released if the ORB holds he is no danger to the public.

Outside court, Russell told reporters there is “zero closure” for her family, as they will have to go each year to Kachkar’s ORB hearings, “for the rest of my life.”

“We’re heartbroken. I believe that Ryan deserved a lot better than this. He was killed in the line of duty. Nothing changes that,” she said.

She addressed some remarks to Prime Minister Stephen Harper. “I know you’re listening,” she said, adding she will advocate hard for his government’s Not Criminally Responsible Reform Act, which will create a high risk offender designation, imposing restrictions on people who have committed violent crimes, among other reforms.

Toronto Police Association president Mike McCormack called it a “lose-lose situation.” He agreed it was a tragic event, but believed the Crown presented a compelling case. “When somebody turns around and runs a snow plow at one of our officers, I tend to have a different opinion, (than the jury) about what happened,” he said.

Defence lawyer Bob Richardson said Kachkar feels terrible about Russell’s death. “Mr. Kachkar has specifically told me that the focus today should be on Sgt. Russell and his family and not him.”

Richardson said his psychotic client still doesn’t understand why or how it happened.

The veteran defence lawyer called simplistic comments the verdict is unjust. “There was justice. A man who was mentally ill at the time and didn't know what he was doing, caused someone’s death.”

Both Crown and defence had agreed Kachkar drove through the city core, smashing into cars, shattering the glass doors of a Maserati dealership and hitting Russell with the snowplow on Avenue Rd. early on a snowy Jan. 12, 2011.

In a court session Wednesday afternoon, the prosecution asked that Kachkar’s dangerous driving charge be stayed. Justice Ian MacDonnell agreed.

Russell’s father Glenn, in his victim-impact statement, told Kachkar he “smashed” his family “to pieces.”

“You have no idea how much grief and pain you have caused to my family and myself.”

Tracy Russell, Ryan Russell’s sister, said “my brother can never be replaced.”

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She recalled acting as Ryan’s mouthpiece when he was a toddler — 18 months younger than her, before he could talk. Now her brother will never see his young son, Nolan, grow up, she said.

Toronto police chief Bill Blair said there’s no satisfaction in the outcome.

“It’s a tragedy for Ryan Russell’s family. It’s a tragedy for the city and for the Toronto Police Service. But I think it’s also a tragedy for Mr. Kachkar,” he said.

“The members of my service are very often front line mental health workers in this city. 17,000 times every year we have to deal with people who are suffering from emotional disturbance or serious mental illness,” he added.

“The members of my service are very often front line mental health workers in this city. 17,000 times every year we have to deal with people who are suffering from emotional disturbance or serious mental illness.”

The system can do better at supporting the mentally ill, the overwhelming majority of whom are not dangerous, he added.

Lead homicide Det. Mary Vruna said the jury had a difficult job to do. Whatever the verdict, “it still won’t change the loss to the Russell family and Ryan Russell’s friends.”

“The Toronto Police Service has lost a very good honourable, police officer and we can never replace that.”

Richardson and fellow defence lawyer Indira Stewart tried to prove that, on the legally required “balance of probabilities,” Kachkar was not criminally responsible due to his mental illness.

For their part, Crown prosecutors McGoey and Jessica Smith Joy argued although he was mentally ill, Kachkar knew what he was doing was wrong and was therefore guilty of murder.

Further, because he knew the uniformed Russell was a police officer, Kachkar is guilty of first-degree murder, they said.

They argued he deliberately drove the snowplow at Russell to kill him or cause enough injuries that death would likely result.

Alternatively, McGoey told the jury, Kachkar is guilty of murder because he drove at Russell in a dangerous manner to evade arrest and, although he may not have meant to kill him, foresaw the likelihood of Russell’s death.

But the defence argued Kachkar showed classic signs of mental deterioration in the weeks before the homicide. He was at loose ends, living in a homeless shelter in St. Catharines, estranged from his wife and two near-adult children.

The unshaven man took a bus to Toronto and stayed with friends, raising their concern over his erratic behaviour. He sought medical help from a Regent Park doctor for help, as he told him with his “thinking,” the day before, the defence pointed out.

The Crown argued, on the contrary, that although he showed signs of mental illness in December 2010 and January 2011, he could make rational decisions and plan for the future. His behaviour during the two-hour snowplow joyride, in which he deftly manoeuvred the large truck and yelled at passersby, is consistent with a man seeking attention or a sense of power, McGoey said.

Throughout the trial, Kachkar has sat staring straight ahead impassively, scarcely appearing to watch the witnesses.