Judge convicts colonization before sentencing admitted killer in woman’s 2024 beating death

With a laundry basket sitting atop her walker, 52-year-old Lucy Wood got into the elevator of her Assiniboine Avenue apartment building Sept. 22, 2024, when Jules Desjarlais shoved her back into the hallway and delivered a flurry of punches to her head, knocking her to the floor.

Security video at the Assiniboine Avenue Manitoba Housing complex showed Wood struggling to stand up when Desjarlais, then 20, stomped on her head nine times and once on her stomach.

Wood died in hospital from blunt abdominal trauma.

“(Desjarlais’) actions were unprovoked, irrational and terrifying,” Court of King’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris said Tuesday before sentencing him to 10 years in prison for manslaughter. “I cannot begin to imagine the horror felt by Ms. Wood in those moments,” Harris said.

“Unprovoked, irrational and terrifying.”

Desjarlais, who was also a resident at the housing complex, was originally charged with second-degree murder but admitted guilt to manslaughter after prosecutors conceded they could not prove he had the intent to kill her.

Court was told Desjarlais had been showing signs of paranoia and experiencing hallucinations in the days leading up to the attack and had ingested household cleaning solutions in an attempt to kill himself.

“The accused was in a highly intoxicated and psychotic state at the time of the offence,” Crown attorney Kevin Minuk told court, reading from an agreed statement of facts.

Wood was one of three people Desjarlais assaulted over the course of approximately 30 minutes he spent riding the building’s elevator.

Desjarlais shoved a man with a walker to the hallway floor as he tried to enter the elevator. Minutes later he punched another man in the head waiting for the elevator.

After attacking Wood, Desjarlais rode the elevator down to another floor, where he saw the second male victim again waiting for the elevator and yelled: “I’m going to kill you, I’m going to slit your throat.”

George Walker sobbed as he watched for the first time security video showing the attack on his sister and lashed out angrily at Desjarlais.

In a previously prepared victim impact statement provided to court, Walker said he forgave Desjarlais.

“I’m not mad,” Walker said. “He was not in his head.”

Walker said Wood saved his life when he was gravely ill and visited him every day in hospital.

“Lucy would make sure I would go to my treatments,” he said. “She was a nice sister. She didn’t say no to anybody.”

Wood was in line for a kidney transplant at the time of her death, her sister Cecilia Harper said in a victim impact statement.

“I was so happy for her, but you (Desjarlais) stopped that from happening,” Harper said. “You had to go and harm a sweet and defenceless lady.”

“You had to go and harm a sweet and defenceless lady.”

Security video of the elevator showed Desjarlais in an agitated state, kicking the wall and ramming his body against the door.

A psychiatric report prepared for court found Desjarlais fit the criteria for major depressive disorder, borderline personality disorder and unspecified psychotic disorder.

Desjarlais was seized from his parents at the age of three and put in the care of his grandmother, a residential school survivor, his lawyer Saheel Zaman told court. Child and Family Services removed Desjarlais from his grandmother’s home when he was nine, after which he was placed in a series of foster homes where he was physically and sexually abused.

Desjarlais suffered three concussions while in an abusive relationship with a partner who repeatedly encouraged him to kill himself.

“My client really didn’t value his life at the time,” Zaman said.

“His life story is yet another example of the horrific policies of colonization of Indigenous people in this country.”

At the time of his arrest, Desjarlais was living alone with little social support. But for his lawyer, no one appeared in court Tuesday on his behalf.

“What I see before me is a complete failure of our society,” Harris said. “His life story is yet another example of the horrific policies of colonization of Indigenous people in this country.

“This man had no chance and his involvement in the criminal justice system should surprise no one. Society has failed this man…. Had Mr. Desjarlais received the care and nurturing to which he was entitled we’d likely not be here today.”

Desjarlais received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to just under 7 1/2 years.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca