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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Bloodvein man guilty of killing boy, 12
A Manitoba victim of a home invasion was not justified in beating a 12-year-old intruder to death with a baseball bat, a jury decided Monday evening.
Tennessee Weedmark, 21, was found guilty of manslaughter for the killing of Albert Goosehead, who died of blunt-force trauma after a June 2009 beating on Bloodvein First Nation, 210 kilometres north of Winnipeg.
The circumstances surrounding the killing amount to a love triangle of sorts, court was told.
Weedmark, then 18, had started dating a young woman in Bloodvein after a previous relationship with her sister, who was friends with Goosehead, ended. The ex-girlfriend was jealous her sister was dating Weedmark and claimed he assaulted her.
She told Goosehead and others about the alleged abuse, prompting Goosehead to grab a baseball bat and go with several friends to a home where Weedmark stayed.
One of those friends told jurors Goosehead smashed his way into the home in the middle of the night and a confrontation occurred.
Weedmark's girlfriend, who was pregnant, was struck with the bat. A second brawl erupted between the two sisters. At some point, Weedmark grabbed the bat and struck Goosehead three times in the head.
"If he didn't act, what was going to happen next? He didn't know, but he wasn't going to take the chance and find out," defence lawyer Darren Sawchuk said Friday.
He said Goosehead was "out of control" and high on marijuana. Sawchuk told jurors not to be fooled by his young age and slight size.
"Please think of the entirety of the background," Sawchuk said. After hitting Goosehead, Weedmark tried to revive him, but it was too late.
Weedmark later gave a statement to police admitting what happened.
The Crown said Weedmark's actions were overkill and not legally justified. Sawchuk said his client regrets he didn't flee with his girlfriend.
www.mikeoncrime.com
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition September 25, 2012 B2
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