Man pleads guilty to shotgun slaying

A WINNIPEG drug dealer has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a March 2025 killing that saw the body of a 30-year-old man dumped in a garbage bin and dragged to a West End alleyway.

Frederick Francis Mathias Baker, who was 28 upon his arrest early last year, shot Bronson Emery Dale Kequahtooway once in the thigh with a sawed-off shotgun and left him with a fatal wound, Crown prosecutor Matt Armstrong told Court of King’s Bench Justice Brian Bowman on Wednesday.

A split second after Baker shot Kequahtooway in the thigh, the victim was shot in the head with a sawed-off .22 rifle. The man accused of being armed with the rifle, Eric Matthew Morrissette, remains before the court on a second-degree murder charge.

“Either wound would have been fatal on its own,” said Armstrong.

After Baker’s guilty plea, the Crown lawyer read an agreed statement of facts, detailing the circumstance’s of Kequahtooway’s death in a Simcoe Street home and the discovery of his body in a garbage bin in the back lane on the north side of Wellington Avenue, between Arlington and Home streets, on March 28, 2025.

Baker, who lived in and sold drugs from a suite in 768 Simcoe St., had a “prior, acrimonious relationship” with Kequahtooway and had barred him from entering the house, the prosecutor said.

He instructed Alana Katherine Edith Anderson and Richard Allen Penonzek, who were hanging around at the house, to alert him if Kequahtooway showed up at the door, which he did just before midnight on March 27, Armstrong said.

Jeromy Daniel Smith was working the door of the drug house and was to let in only those who were welcome, said Armstrong, but Kequahtooway tricked Smith into opening the door and forced his way inside, going up to Baker’s suite on the second floor of the house.

Rochelle Hannah Bella Little, Anderson and Penonzek were in the suite and two of them sent messages to Baker to say that Kequahtooway had shown up.

Baker and Morrissette, who were at a Manitoba Housing high-rise apartment at 444 Kennedy Street, got in a cab and arrived at 768 Simcoe just after 12 a.m. on March 28.

Morrissette was armed with a cut-down bolt-action .22 rifle and Baker was given a sawed-off shotgun by Penonzek when they arrived to the suite, where Kequahtooway was alone in the living room, said Armstrong.

The two armed men confronted Kequahtooway in the living room.

“At approximately 12:13 a.m., Baker shot Kequahtooway once in the upper-right thigh at close range with the shotgun. Within one second of being shot with the shotgun, Kequahtooway sustained a second gunshot wound to the left side of his head from a .22 calibre projectile,” said Armstrong.

Baker then instructed Little not to speak to anyone about what had occurred and ran downstairs with Morrisette.

Baker then told Smith, Anderson, Penonzek and Little to clean up Kequahtooway’s body as he and Morrissette fled to a McPhillips Street hotel in a cab just before 12:30 a.m., said Armstrong.

After they left, Baker messaged Anderson, telling her to remove Kequahtooway’s body and clean the suite with the others. Penonzek and Smith dragged the body down the stairs and put his remains in a City of Winnipeg garbage bin, while Smith removed a carpet runner from the stairs that was left blood-stained, said Armstrong.

At about 1:50 a.m., Anderson and three other women dragged the garbage bin and the carpet runner to the back lane behind Wellington Avenue and left, the prosecutor said.

Later that morning, a garbage truck attempted to lift the bin that contained Kequahtooway’s remains, but it was too heavy for its lifting mechanism and was left knocked over in the lane.

Just before 10 a.m., a citizen retrieving their own bin saw Kequahtooway’s body in the garbage and called 911.

Winnipeg Police Service detectives, using video surveillance, determined the bin had been dragged from the Simcoe Street house and commenced an investigation into the slaying, ultimately arresting all six accused.

Kequahtooway, a member of Zagime Anishinabek First Nation in Saskatchewan and the youngest of seven children, grew up in Moose Jaw, Sask., until his family moved to Swan River in 2002. He moved to Winnipeg as an adult.

Baker is to be sentenced to life in prison with no parole eligibility for 10 years — the minimum for the second-degree murder — in November on a joint recommendation from the Crown and his defence lawyer, Saul Simmonds.

Morrissette, who was 39 when he was arrested early last year, is set to stand trial. Those charged with accessory after the fact to murder in the case — Anderson, Penonzek, Smith and Little — also remain before the court.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca