Woman’s fate in jury’s hands

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This article was published 25/06/2019 (2438 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jurors will resume deliberations this morning in the trial of a Winnipeg woman accused of stabbing her neighbour to death.

Brenda Schuff, 46, is charged with second-degree murder in the 2017 slaying of Judy Kenny, 54.

Jurors began deliberating Schuff’s fate around 1 p.m. Tuesday, and wrapped up at 9 p.m., without reaching a verdict.

Kenny was found dead on the kitchen floor of her Camden Place home on April 10, 2017. She had been beaten and stabbed 23 times in the head and chest.

Schuff’s lawyers argued that she found herself in a life-or-death struggle with Kenny, who was deranged by a toxic combination of alcohol and prescription medication.

Jurors have heard Kenny had a blood-alcohol level four times the limit for driving when she died, and had an antidepressant in her system that can cause “homicidal ideation” in less than one per cent of users.

Schuff testified she met Kenny for the first time just hours before the fatal incident, as Kenny searched for a lost dog.

Schuff said she helped Kenny in the search, and then joined her at her Wolseley-area home to socialize.

She claimed Kenny became angry after she spent too much time in the bathroom, and later blocked her exit when she attempted to leave the house. During the ensuing struggle, Kenny brandished a knife, causing Schuff to fear for her life, she testified.

Schuff said she punched Kenny two or three times in the head, after which everything “flickered and got dark.” She said the next thing she remembered was standing in her own kitchen with her husband.

Police found Kenny topless, with her tights on backwards.

Prosecutors rejected Schuff’s memory loss as “convenient,” and argued that Schuff attacked Kenny after she rejected her sexual advances.

The number of injuries Kenny suffered — including four broken ribs and internal injuries — was indicative of an enraged attacker, not someone who was defending herself, Crown attorney Debbie Buors told jurors in a closing argument Monday.

“Judy Kenny rejected Brenda Schuff, and that was enough to cause her to become unhinged and deranged,” Buors said.

Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Rick Saull advised jurors Tuesday they can find Schuff guilty of manslaughter, if they believe she did not have the state of mind to commit murder or was provoked.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca