Second teen pleads guilty to 2022 inner-city slayings

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A second teenager has accepted responsibility for his role in the unprovoked killing of strangers in Point Douglas in the summer of 2022.

The 17-year-old pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder, while a third charge against him was stayed Monday without an explanation being given to the court.

The boy was 15 at the time of the attacks, which occurred in and around Main Street early on Aug. 22.

Danielle Dawn Ballantyne, 36, died that day, and Marvin William Felix, 54, died later after being taken off life-support. A second man, Troy Baguley, 51, also died from injuries inflicted upon him.

Last week, an 18-year-old man pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree for the killings of Ballantyne and Felix and one count of manslaughter in relation to Baguley’s death.

The two teens had been AWOL from their group home in Wolseley; the younger boy had been reported missing on Aug. 9, Crown prosecutor Lisa Carson told King’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg Monday.

To date, no motive has been given for the slayings.

Carson is seeking adult punishment for the teens, which would amount to automatic life sentences, while their lawyers are seeking youth sentences. Sentencing won’t be scheduled until later this year.

Winnipeg Police Service officers arrested the older teen at a sweat lodge affiliated with the group home one day after the slayings. He was still wearing the T-shirt and ball cap he’d worn when he killed the victims.

The 17-year-old was arrested in Long Plain First Nation by the Manitoba First Nations Police Service five days after the attacks.

Ballantyne was found badly injured in a Jarvis Avenue apartment close to the scene where Baguley had been attacked around 4:20 a.m.

She was lying in a pool of blood; handprints on the walls matched the 17-year-old’s, Carson said. Ballantyne, who had head trauma, was pronounced dead at about 9 a.m.

Felix was asleep in his wheelchair in front of the Bell Hotel on Main Street, when the boys came upon him at 4:38 a.m., Carson said.

He was attacked “completely unprovoked” and pulled from his chair, beaten and stomped on, she said. He was taken off life-support four days later because of his serious head injuries.

A second-degree murder charge against a boy, who was 13 at the time, in relation to the attack on Baguley was dismissed earlier, the Free Press has confirmed.

Tristan Colten Moose, 23, who had been charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault last year, in relation to Baguley’s death.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

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