Witness testifies she was beaten, threatened after killings in drug den

A woman who was present the night five people were gunned down inside a Langside Street crack house, testified she was tied to a chair and beaten by the alleged killer’s father and sister, who threatened to harm her family if she identified the accused as the shooter.

The disclosure by Xena Hall came near the end of two-plus hours of often combative testimony Tuesday in the trial of Jamie Felix.

Felix, 35, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of second-degree murder in the Nov. 26, 2023 shootings of Crystal Beardy, 34; her sister Stephanie Beardy, 33; Melelek Lesikel, 29; Dylan Lavallee, 41; and Shawn Marko, 56.

At the time, Hall, 28, was the girlfriend of Felix’s now-deceased father, Randolph “Chummy” Fagnan, who Hall told court had sold drugs out of the crack house.

Hall testified she went to the house three times to buy crack in the roughly 12 hours before the shootings.

Hall said she returned to the house for the final time between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. Also present were Fagnan, his daughter Savannah Fagnan and son Kyle Houle, Felix, and the shooting victims.

Hall said Felix had been smoking crack and drinking, but “didn’t seem that intoxicated.”

Hall said she saw Houle with a black handgun a short time before she saw Radolph Fagnan and Felix leave the house through the back door.

Jurors have been shown security footage that show two men, whom prosecutors allege are Fagnan and Felix, walking in the back lane and out of camera range, after which what sounds like a gunshot is heard.

Hall testified she was in the kitchen talking to Savannah when Fagnan walked in, followed by Felix.

“I remember (Felix) holding his hand up and all of a sudden seeing fire, gun smoke, whatever, coming from the gun in his hand,” Hall said.

Hall said Fagnan pulled her into the bathroom and they climbed into the bathtub until the shooting stopped.

“Chummy got out off the tub to see what was going on and he was yelling at his son, yelling at him to give him the handgun, or something like that,” Hall said.

“Chummy said: ‘What did you do?’ and Jamie said: ‘What did you guys make me do?’ or something like that,” she said.

Hall said Felix had already fled when she, Fagnan and his daughter left the house, with Hall grabbing a bag of drugs on the way out.

Hall said they made their way to Fagnan’s apartment on Powers Street where his son and daughter tied her to a chair and beat her.

“They were saying don’t say it was my son, don’t say it was my brother or they would come after my family,” Hall confirmed she said in a police interview following the killings. “They made me agree not to say anything before they let me go.”

Hall’s testimony often had to pulled from her, as she resisted repeated offers by Crown attorney Chantal Boutin to “refresh her memory” and review her prior statements to police.

“It happened a long time ago, I’m pregnant and you guys are starting to stress me out,” she said at one point.

Defence lawyer Ted Mariash accused Hall of being part of a “conspiracy” to frame Felix for the killing, and pointed to several inconsistencies and omissions in her testimony and police statements.

“I’m going to suggest you found yourself to be a pawn in a murder-robbery conspiracy perpetrated by Chummy Fagnan,” Mariash put to Hall.

“It wasn’t planned, not from me, anyway,” she said.

Mariash said it was only now that Hall disclosed she had taken a bag of drugs when she left the crack house after the shooting.

“You wanted to keep that detail hidden, didn’t you?” Mariash said. “You robbing the scene of a murder would make you look bad, wouldn’t it?”

Hall said she grabbed the drugs at Fagnan’s instruction.

Mariash said Hall’s testimony that she saw Houle with a gun at the crack house was at odds with a prior police statement saying it was Felix who showed her a gun.

“He (Jamie) showed it to me that night,” Hall told police. “I didn’t know he was going to do that, but his dad says he has brain damage and has to take meds to keep him normal.”

Court has heard Felix suffers from seizures and takes medication that cannot be mixed with drugs and alcohol.

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“You would agree with me that (police statement) was a lie,” Mariash said. “Because in your testimony today you said Kyle Houle showed you the gun, not Jamie.”

Hall said she meant to say she saw Houle with a gun in the house days before the shooting.

“So what was it?” Mariash said. “Who did you see pulling the gun out of their pocket?”

“Jamie that night when he shot those people in the head,” Hall answered. “Kyle did not shoot those people. It was Jamie.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.