No parole application for seven years for 2019 slaying

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This article was published 13/06/2022 (1229 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man who was on parole for killing a man when he stabbed a stranger to death during a “relentless” meth-fuelled attack has been sentenced to life in prison.

Rodney Williams, 37, was convicted of manslaughter in the June 2019 death of 51-year-old Robert Donaldson.

Williams stood trial charged with second-degree murder, but Queen’s Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy found he was in the grip of a methamphetamine-induced psychosis at the time that left him unable to form the intent to kill.

“That does not negate the fact that Williams knowingly consumed drugs and alcohol, knowing that he had a violent past, and set out into the streets of Winnipeg with the knife,” McCarthy wrote in a 22-page decision released Monday. “Williams then committed a sustained, relentless and violent attack on an arbitrary victim and others tying to assist him.”

Court heard at trial Donaldson and a friend were walking near the intersection of Sherbrook Street and Sara Avenue, shortly before 9 p.m., when they crossed paths with Williams and another man. Williams yelled at Donaldson before pulling a knife from his pants, and chased Donaldson and his friend north toward Sara Avenue.

Williams cut Davidson once in the ribs before a passing motorist tried to intervene and gave Donaldson and his friend a baseball bat and steering wheel anti-theft device (club) to defend themselves.

As Donaldson’s friend and the motorist tried to keep Williams at bay, Williams broke through their defences and stabbed Donaldson several more times, once fatally in the chest.

Two witnesses provided first aid, but he died minutes later.

Williams returned to his Sherbrook Street apartment, where police arrested him minutes later.

In 2009, Williams, then 24, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for stabbing a man to death three years earlier, following a party at Hollow Water First Nation.

Court at the time heard Williams stabbed Leslie Moneyas five times, including four times in the back. He was granted statutory release in 2017.

A pre-sentence report prepared following his latest conviction found Williams showed “an apparent lack of insight about his anger management and substance abuse issues.”

Testifying at trial, Williams “was more concerned with hiding his substance use so that he would not be considered a ‘meth head’ than he was in accepting assistance,” McCarthy said. Psychiatric reports provided to court included little evidence Williams has empathy for his victim or remorse for his actions, she said.

“While it is evident to anyone who considers his history that he struggles with substance abuse issues and becomes violent when he uses substances, he denies repeatedly that either are a problem,” the judge said.

Offenders sentenced to life in prison for manslaughter must serve a minimum of seven years in custody before they can apply for parole. McCarthy rejected a Crown request she increase Williams’s period of parole ineligibility to 10 years, saying there was still hope he could be rehabilitated.

“If he could successfully overcome his addiction issues during his incarceration, that could reduce his risk to society,” McCarthy said. “Despite my findings with respect to Williams’s lack of insight and motivation to change… I am not prepared to find that there is absolutely no possibility of same.”

Donaldson died before his now-two-year-old daughter was born. His common-law partner said they had just bought a house together in Winnipeg a year before his death and blended their families.

“This senseless crime caused extreme pain to every family member,” Jessika Pennock wrote in a victim impact statement read in court at a sentencing hearing in April.

“That one act of hatred and violence by you ruined our future,” Pennock said. “What you did tore (apart) everything we worked hard to build together.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca