‘Deliberate decision’: man gets five-year prison sentence after fatal beating

A 24-year-old Winnipeg man has been sentenced to five years in prison for his part in a fatal two-on-one attack on a victim already incapacitated by a beating the two offenders meted out minutes earlier.

Jrayden Monias, 24, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Feb. 7, 2024, killing of 19-year-old River Harper inside his Assiniboine Avenue high-rise apartment building.

“The evidence suggests Mr. Monias played a significant role in the violence visited upon Mr. Harper and in particular that the second assault occurred after a deliberate decision to return to the suite,” said provincial court Judge Victoria Cornick.

Defence lawyer John Corona had recommended Monias be sentenced to four years in prison, the same sentence handed to co-accused Jadar Morrison earlier this year.

Court heard the two offenders and Harper had met earlier that evening at the Airport Motor Inn before taking a taxi to Harper’s apartment, where they drank until Morrison and Harper had an argument over a bottle of alcohol.

“Mr. Monias became involved in the altercation and admits that he struck Mr. Harper, delivering an unknown number of punches and kicks,” Cornick said.

Security video showed Monias and Morrison leaving the suite at 10:20 p.m. followed shortly after by Harper, who wandered the hallway briefly before returning to his apartment.

“Mr. Harper clearly looked injured and had obvious rips to his shirt,” Cornick said.

Monias and Morrison returned to the building about 20 minutes later after Morrison realized he had forgotten his tablet inside Harper’s apartment.

Security video showed Morrison entering Harper’s suite first. Monias set his belongings aside before following Morrison inside.

Cornick said there was no evidence of Morrison’s actions inside the apartment, but Monias “acknowledges his participation in an assaultive interaction during this period.”

After Monias and Morrison leave, Harper is again captured on surveillance video exiting his suite “exhibiting further and more significant injuries than before,” Cornick said.

“Mr. Monias became involved in the altercation and admits that he struck Mr. Harper, delivering an unknown number of punches and kicks.”

Harper collapsed in the hallway, where he remained until a tenant discovered him several hours later. Emergency responders pronounced him dead at the scene.

A warrant was issued for Monias’s arrest after his mother recognized his picture in a police bulletin. Monias turned himself in to police Feb. 26, 2024.

Monias had no reason to enter Harper’s apartment the second time and attack him, Cornick said.

The four-year sentence recommended by the defence “risks underemphasizing the seriousness of the second assault and the degree of intentional risk taking involved,” she said.

Monias received credit for time already served, reducing his remaining sentence to approximately 20 months.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca