A 22-year-old man looked close to tears as he made a brief appearance in a Kitchener, Ont., courtroom on Wednesday, a day after he was arrested and charged with killing a senior who was delivering Christmas cards.

A police van brings accused killer Trevor James Lapierre to a Kitchener courtroom on Wednesday.
(CBC)

Trevor James Lapierre, a Kitchener man who had been living with his parents, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Hunter Brown, 74. Lapierre was also charged with assaulting a second man who was shovelling snow.

"[Lapierre] appears to be very distraught, somewhat dishevelled and he appears to be in a great deal of difficulty," Lapierre's lawyer, Brennan Smart, said outside the downtown courtroom after the hearing.

Lapierre appeared in court wearing a white T-shirt with the letters "WRPS" on the front, the acronym for Waterloo Regional Police Services, the local police force. Smart said police sometimes issue these shirts to people with mental illnesses, but the lawyer would not elaborate on his client's mental state.

Smart said Lapierre had been living in Toronto, but returned to his hometown about three months ago to live with his family. His relatives were in the courtroom on Wednesday.

Brown found bleeding in driveway

Lapierre was arrested while riding in a taxi in Kitchener on Tuesday afternoon.

Hunter Brown, 74, was killed Saturday as he delivered Christmas cards to friends and neighbours.
(The Record/Canadian Press)

He was wanted in the slaying of Brown, who was found unconscious and bleeding on Saturday in his neighbour's driveway, just steps away from his own home.

The retired Bell executive had been delivering Christmas cards by hand to friends and neighbours, a tradition he carried out every year in the neighbourhood where he and his wife lived for some 30 years.

Brown died soon after in hospital. Waterloo regional police said he had been attacked with a "sharp-edged object."

Two days later, a 35-year-old man was attacked as he cleared his driveway in the same neighbourhood. Police said his attacker made "negative references" about God. The victim fended off the attacker with a shovel and ran for help. He was not seriously injured.

Police said neither victim knew their attacker.

'Do I let my kids go outside to play?'

Berry Vrbanovic, the city councillor who represents the ward where the attacks took place, said the incidents have shaken the community.

"Everyone is in a whole range of emotions right now, from sadness to anger," Vrbanovic told CBC News.

He said there is some relief that a suspect is in custody.

"It's very much a sense of relief," he said. "People were thinking, 'Do I let my kids go outside to play? Do I shovel the snow?' … It takes that thought from their minds."

Lapierre's next court appearance will be Jan. 9. He will remain in custody at the Maplehurst Correction Centre in Milton, west of Toronto.