Slain Stony Mountain inmate was in prison for murder

A Stony Mountain Institution inmate who was slain at the prison Wednesday began serving time there for second-degree murder less than two weeks earlier.

The Correctional Service of Canada identified the victim as Kyle Harper, 27, in a news release Monday. He began serving his sentence there Sept. 18. As in all cases involving the death of an inmate, the correctional service will review the circumstances of the slaying.

Manitoba RCMP announced Sunday that two men have been charged in the fatal stabbing. Mounties were sent there at 10:10 p.m. Wednesday, and the victim died at the scene.

Harper and two of his cousins, siblings Ramona Harper and Raoul Harper, were sentenced last month for the August 2023 killing of 38-year-old Cory Roulette. Kyle Harper, who wielded the sawed-off rifle that killed Roulette, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years. The siblings pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to seven years in prison.

An agreed statement of facts provided to court said Ramona Harper and another woman were walking past the victim’s Furby Street apartment building late at night when Harper kicked over garbage cans, attracting the attention of a boy who was visiting Roulette and standing on his second-floor balcony.

The boy and Harper yelled at each other, and the boy threatened to shoot Harper. Ramona returned to her Langside Street home and “incited” Kyle and Raoul to accompany her and “violently confront” the occupant of the second-floor suite. Once inside, Raoul beat Roulette with a baton before Kyle Harper shot him in the chest.

At the time of the killing, Kyle Harper was on bail for multiple gun offences and was wearing an ankle monitor.

Evander Brightnose, 26, and Theodore Anderson, 22, have been charged with second-degree murder in Harper’s slaying.

Brightnose, who also uses or used the last name Brightnose-Baker, was convicted of first-degree murder alongside a co-accused in December 2022 for the October 2020 killing of Mohamed Mohiadin Ahmed, 29. Brightnose was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years in May 2023.

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca