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Winnipeg Free Press - ONLINE EDITION

Tears shed at Garden Hill during sentencing for beating death

By: Staff Writer

Posted: 07/10/2012 5:39 PM

Gang tension and homemade alcohol are being blamed for a deadly swarming attack on a Manitoba First Nation.

Terence Fiddler, 32, suffered massive trauma in the July 2010 incident in Garden Hill, located about 610 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Two 16-year-old boys were arrested and charged with manslaughter. They have both pleaded guilty and received the maximum sentence of two years custody and one year community supervision under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Defence lawyer John Corona told the Free Press Tuesday a sentencing hearing was held last week for one of the killers in front of dozens of community members in Garden Hill, which has a population of about 3,300.

"There were a lot of tears," said Corona. "This was a particularly brutal manslaughter in terms of the beating and the injuries."

The other youth was sentenced in March. Fiddler was linked to the Renegades gang on the reserve, while his two killers have ties to the rival Krazies.

Corona said the youths had also consumed a large quantity of "super juice," which residents of the dry community make themselves using a number of products including potatoes.

"There was definitely a gang overture to it," said Corona.

He said the long-standing issues between the two groups were exacerbated by the consumption of alcohol. Corona said his client had also been severely bullied as a child and immersed himself in the gang life to help survive.

The Free Press has previously reported on several similar gang-related attacks in Garden Hill, including a handful that ended in deaths. In 2008, RCMP sent a gang expert to the community to work with investigators and residents.

"For a small-knit community, it’s disastrous. If it were in Winnipeg, it would affect just a small pocket. On a reserve, it affects everybody," Jeff Wilson, an anti-gang worker with Paapiiwak, said at the time.

"They use terror tactics," Wilson said the isolation of reserve life combined with easy access to satellite TV and pop culture — such as rap music glorifying gangster life — feeds into gang recruitment.

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