Fatal stabbing triggered by argument over $5: witness

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A sudden argument over what sounded like $5 preceded the slaying of a 37-year-old man in Winnipeg’s Centennial neighbourhood in March 2020, a trial heard Tuesday.

Dylan James Mousseau has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the stabbing death of Travis Joel Johnson just after midnight March 10, 2020. His criminal trial began Monday before Court of King’s Bench Justice James Edmond and continued Tuesday with testimony from a witness who said she overheard bits and pieces of the argument and spoke to 911 dispatchers in the aftermath of the violence at a fourplex in the 500 block of Elgin Avenue.

Chantal Ouellette lived with roommates at the Elgin residence and was doing laundry in the basement when she heard a commotion upstairs. She testified Mousseau, the adult son of one of her roommates, was there with a woman she didn’t know. Another woman and her boyfriend showed up to visit. Ouellette told court she didn’t know exactly what they were doing there. She’d seen the woman frequently over the past couple of months, and knew her as “Cece” but had never seen her boyfriend before. He turned out to be the victim, Johnson, and Ouellette had to ask someone his name while she was making the 911 call as he lay bleeding out on the kitchen floor.

“I just heard an argument,” Ouellette testified. From the basement, she couldn’t hear all that was said, but from what she heard, it sounded like Cece owed Mousseau money. She said she could see them talking in the stairwell through the open basement door.

“I think it was something over five dollars… five dollars that she owed him and he started getting upset about it,” she testified, saying Mousseau was starting to get aggressive toward Cece. Ouellette said she heard Mousseau tell the couple to give him their stuff or he would “chase” them.

“She just sounded, like, confused why he would be treating her this way over five dollars or something,” Ouellette said. She didn’t hear the other man (who she later learned was Johnson) say anything.

Then, she heard a scuffle and heard Cece screaming.

“I just remember her saying, ‘Dylan, don’t, stop it’… and a lot of crying and screaming.”

The whole incident happened quickly, within two or three minutes, she testified.

Ouellette testified she saw Mousseau flee through the back door, and then she went upstairs and saw Cece holding her boyfriend in her arms as he bled from his left side. Ouellette testified she didn’t personally see anyone getting injured. While she was on the phone with 911 dispatchers, Ouellette asked what he was stabbed with, and Cece told her a “machete.” A recording of the 911 call was played in court Tuesday. Asked by dispatchers who the suspect was, she named Mousseau.

During cross-examination from Mousseau’s defence lawyer Steven Brennan, Ouellette agreed she hadn’t heard everything that was said.

“An argument about five dollars, I remember,” she said. She responded, “I guess it’s fair,” when Brennan suggested she didn’t know who Cece was talking to when she said “stop it.”

Brennan asked if the couple was at the residence to purchase drugs. Ouellette responded she didn’t know and didn’t want to make assumptions about whether Cece did drugs.

The trial began Monday with testimony from four Winnipeg Police Service officers, including those who responded to the initial stabbing report and others who were part of the forensic identification team. A forensic pathologist, Dr. Jason Morin, testified Johnson died of a stab wound to his chest, which he said could have been caused by a machete or another knife.

The trial is scheduled to continue today. Prosecutor Rustyn Ullrich is expected to call additional civilian witnesses to the stand before the Crown closes its case.

katie.may@winnipegfreepress.com