12-year term for brutal slaying

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This article was published 14/03/2017 (3322 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man who beat his girlfriend to death is headed to prison in a case that prompted legislative changes aimed at supporting victims of domestic violence.

Ray William Everett, now nearly 22 years old, admitted Monday to killing 20-year-old Selena Rose Keeper, the mother of his child, while he was heavily intoxicated one night in October 2015. He was charged with second-degree murder in the fatal beating, but he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

Provincial court Judge Tracey Lord accepted the 12-year sentence as recommended by Crown attorney Scott Cooper and defence lawyer Theodore Mariash, describing the attack on Keeper as a “prolonged and brutal beating.”

“It’s aggravating because that is precisely the kind of relationship in which an individual is supposed to feel safe and be able to trust the person that they’re with, not a relationship of brutality and cruelty,” the judge said.

Keeper died of blunt force trauma from her head wounds after Everett repeatedly punched her during at least two separate assaults while they were drinking together at Everett’s sister’s home in the North End overnight from Oct. 7 to 8, 2015.

They had been together for about six years, had a son together who was in foster care, and that night they got into an argument over “fidelity issues,” the Crown said. Earlier that night, Keeper had told a friend she believed Everett was in contact with another woman, but she was scared to do anything about it because she believed he would hurt her. He did.

Everett’s relatives woke in the middle of the night to the sound of him slapping and punching Keeper, and although his sister tried to get him to leave her house, he demanded Keeper leave with him. Everett admitted he continued to beat her after they left the house together, although his lawyer said he “blacked out” and couldn’t remember exactly what happened. He woke the next morning in the garage of another relative’s home on Flora Avenue with Keeper unconscious beside him. She later died in hospital, with at least 12 injuries all over her body and fatal damage to her head.

About five months before her death, Keeper had applied for a protection order against Everett, saying “I’ve been hit, slapped, punched, choked, kicked through our whole relationship,” and that she feared for her safety. The request was denied by a judicial justice of the peace.

Keeper’s death prompted then-Manitoba Justice Minister Gord Mackintosh to introduce legislation aimed at making it easier for domestic-violence victims to obtain protection orders against their violent partners and to force the perpetrators to surrender their guns. The updated law took effect last spring.

Selena’s mother, Frederice Keeper, wrote in a victim-impact statement filed in court that she hasn’t fully dealt with the loss of her daughter. She described her death as a “senseless crime.”

“I often feel overwhelmed with sadness over her death and find it hard to cope with losing her to an incident with domestic violence,” she wrote.

Everett, originally from Long Plain First Nation, has a long criminal record with convictions for robbery, drug-trafficking and weapons offences. He has been diagnosed with fetal-alcohol syndrome and got involved in crime when he was young, his lawyer said.

He witnessed alcohol abuse and violence growing up and was shuffled to seven or eight different foster placements starting at the age of four, court heard.

Everett’s lawyer said he wants to deal with his alcohol addiction and will have a chance to do so while he’s in prison. Everett declined to speak in court.

“This is something that Ray will regret for the rest of his entire life. It’s something that has obviously bothered him for the entirety of his time in custody and he wishes to express his deep remorse and regret for his actions on that and he’s doing so by entering his guilty plea,” Mariash told court.

“I want to be very clear that Mr. Everett never intended to cause the death of Ms. Keeper but he definitely acknowledges that it happened as a result of his assaultive behaviour on Ms. Keeper that night.”

With the time he’s already spent in custody, Everett has slightly less than 10 years left to serve in prison.

— with files from Mike McIntyre

katie.may@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @thatkatiemay