Dean Pritchard

Dean Pritchard

Courts reporter

Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.

Since covering his first trial for the Brandon Sun in 1999, Pritchard has logged more time in a courtroom than many of the veteran lawyers whose cases he has followed.

After leaving Brandon, Pritchard spent 12 years on the court beat for the Winnipeg Sun, returning to the beat in 2019 after a brief stint as a Free Press copy editor.

In covering cases that often capture people at their lowest, Pritchard strives for fairness and accuracy, without sacrificing the humanity at the core of the stories. In the words of one of his favourite literary gumshoes, Harry Bosch, “Everybody counts or nobody counts.”

When not running from one courtroom to another, Pritchard has been pepper-sprayed by police, spent an afternoon as a shopping mall Santa, jumped out of a perfectly good airplane and chugged a six-pack before noon to help Mounties test their new roadside screening device — all in the service of (he hopes) a good story. It’s a living.

In his off hours, Pritchard enjoys plucking away at his six string while trying to memorize all 14 verses of The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.

Pritchard believes a great hat always beats a great haircut and that writing about oneself in the third person is a bit… weird.

Editors told Pritchard his bio should be at least 250 words, but as readers may have noticed, he’s not one to run off at the mouth.

Recent articles by Dean Pritchard

Doctor found ways to assault female patients: Crown

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Doctor found ways to assault female patients: Crown

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Yesterday at 5:25 PM CDT

Family doctor Arcel Bissonnette used his position of “trust and authority” to create opportunities to sexually assault five female patients during medical exams, prosecutors told a Manitoba judge Friday.

“He conducted intimate physical exams that surprised and shocked these women,” Crown attorney Patrice Miniely told King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond.

“They did not understand what was happening because he did not explain what he was doing,” Miniely said. “In this way he was able to create space to commit sexual assault and at the same time create uncertainty in the complainants’ minds about what was happening to them.”

Miniely’s comments were made during a “similar fact” application by the Crown. If accepted, Bond could use the evidence of each alleged victim to corroborate the evidence of the others.

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Yesterday at 5:25 PM CDT

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette arrives at the Law Courts for the first day of evidence in his trial in Winnipeg on May 1.

Shooting death nets 18-year sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Shooting death nets 18-year sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 10:17 AM CDT

The first time Leslie McLennan met Deena Marwick was in a junior high art class when Deena threw an eraser at the back of her head.

“I heard the loudest laugh I had ever heard in my life, and a huge snort,” McLennan recounted more than 30 years later, in a victim impact statement read out Thursday in a Winnipeg courtroom.

McLennan, who had a troubled home life, said she had planned to kill herself that day. Instead, she found a new friend she would come to love like a sister, and through her, a new family to call her own.

“She was the coolest kid I ever met,” McLennan said. “I never told you this sissy, but you saved my life on this day. I should have told you, now I never can.”

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Updated: Yesterday at 10:17 AM CDT

The Law Courts of Manitoba (Winnipeg Free Press Files)

Woman to stand trial in 2018 stabbing death of husband

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Woman to stand trial in 2018 stabbing death of husband

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, May. 23, 2023

A Manitoba woman has been found fit to stand trial in the slaying of her 85-year-old husband nearly five years ago.

Anne-Dore Maria Scheppner, 77, was charged with second-degree murder, after Hans George Scheppner was found stabbed to death July 21, 2018, inside their Henderson Highway apartment.

At the time, Winnipeg police said the man had been dead nearly a week when his wife was arrested.

Scheppner has been held at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre since she was found unfit to stand trial in July 2019. She has never applied for bail.

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Tuesday, May. 23, 2023

A Manitoba woman has been found fit to stand trial in the slaying of her 85-year-old husband nearly five years ago.

Anne-Dore Maria Scheppner, 77, was charged with second-degree murder, after Hans George Scheppner was found stabbed to death July 21, 2018, inside their Henderson Highway apartment.

At the time, Winnipeg police said the man had been dead nearly a week when his wife was arrested.

Scheppner has been held at the Selkirk Mental Health Centre since she was found unfit to stand trial in July 2019. She has never applied for bail.

‘All examinations were medically indicated’: doctor on trial for sex assault defends practices

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

‘All examinations were medically indicated’: doctor on trial for sex assault defends practices

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 5:03 AM CDT

A doctor on trial accused of sexually assaulting five women shot back angrily Friday at accusations he became sexually aroused while examining at least two of the alleged victims.

The exchange came as Crown attorney Renee Lagimodiere was questioning Arcel Bissonnette about his examination of a long-time patient who had come to him for a physical.

The woman, who court heard was at the time grieving the recent loss of a close family member, testified earlier in the trial Bissonnette, during a pelvic exam, repeatedly inserted and removed his fingers from her vagina and at the conclusion of the exam saw him with an erection.

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Updated: Yesterday at 5:03 AM CDT

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette arrives at the Law Courts for the first day of evidence in his trial in Winnipeg on May 1.

Doctor accused of sex assault testifies exams were consistent with training

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Doctor accused of sex assault testifies exams were consistent with training

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, May. 18, 2023

A Manitoba doctor on trial accused of sexually assaulting five patients testified Thursday his examinations were all consistent with his medical training.

Arcel Bissonnette provided a detailed review of his examination practices, but admitted he did not always have an independent recollection of the specific examinations at issue in the trial.

“All I can tell you is my usual practices, my usual procedures, and I can’t think of any reason why I would deviate from that,” Bissonnette told court, referring to the pelvic examination of one alleged victim.

Five women have testified Bissonnette performed medical examinations they say amounted to sexual assaults. Three of the women say they saw or may have seen Bissonnette with an erection during or following the examinations.

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Thursday, May. 18, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Arcel Bissonnette, a Manitoba doctor on trial accused of sexually assault, testified Thursday his examinations were all consistent with his medical training.

Convicted killer launches expletive-laden rant at judge after sentencing

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Convicted killer launches expletive-laden rant at judge after sentencing

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, May. 17, 2023

A Winnipeg man sentenced to life in prison for his leading role in a brutal, execution-style murder railed at a judge Monday after he tied him to the alleged rape of a trial witness.

“I just want to know why you keep bringing up the rape (of the witness) and saying I had my friends rape her?” Jesse Daher asked after King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years in the October 2020 torture and slaying of 29-year-old Mohamed Mohiadin Ahmed.

“You guys didn’t even fact check it, you are just taking her word for it. I had nothing to do with it,” Daher said. “You are just making more f—-king problems for me by bringing that up…. F—k you, you know that’s f—king bullshit.”

Defence lawyer Mike Cook intervened and spoke quietly to Daher before telling court: “I said to Mr. Daher I think he has made his point and we can move on.”

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Wednesday, May. 17, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Jesse Daher, who was sentenced to life in prison for his leading role in a brutal, execution-style murder railed at a judge Monday after he tied him to the alleged rape of a trial witness.

Girlfriend testifies about slaying victim’s plan to steal winch, drug use

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Girlfriend testifies about slaying victim’s plan to steal winch, drug use

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 16, 2023

Clifford Joseph disappeared hours after he told his girlfriend he planned to steal a winch from his neighbour’s property — the same neighbour who’s on trial, accused of killing him, jurors heard Tuesday.

“There was a conversation (in the afternoon) about Clifford going to the property next door to steal a winch,” Cristin Wise testified. “He never said when he was going to do it.”

Eric Wildman, 36, is on trial for first-degree murder in the June 7, 2021, killing.

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Tuesday, May. 16, 2023

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

RCMP investigators search for evidence on Eric Paul Wildman’s property for his connection with the homicide of Clifford Joseph near the RM of St. Clements Tuesday.

Thieving neighbour caught in the act, killed by man who fled to Ontario, murder trial told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Thieving neighbour caught in the act, killed by man who fled to Ontario, murder trial told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, May. 15, 2023

Clifford Joseph “was no angel,” but that didn’t mean he deserved to die after he was caught stealing from his neighbour, a jury was told Monday.

Eric Wildman, 36, is on trial charged with first-degree murder in Joseph’s June 2021 killing.

Wildman and Joseph, 40, lived on neighboring properties near Stead, about 90 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg.

Wildman repaired damaged vehicles for resale from his home, which was destroyed by fire weeks before the killing, Crown attorney Bryton Moen said in his opening address to the jury.

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Monday, May. 15, 2023

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

RCMP investigators search for evidence on Eric Wildman’s property for his connection with the homicide of Clifford Joseph, who was Wildman’s neighbour, near the RM of St. Clements in 2021.

Killer sentenced for second slaying, of woman he met at bus stop

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Killer sentenced for second slaying, of woman he met at bus stop

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, May. 12, 2023

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced for the second time in 15 years to a double-digit prison term for killing a woman.

Silas Ammaklak pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the July 2020 slaying of 35-year-old Danielle Harper and was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.

“Not only has Mr. Ammaklak showed himself to be a man prone to violence, he has showed himself to be unable or unwilling to take steps to reduce his risk to reoffend and unable or unwilling to control his violent impulses,” said King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond.

Ammaklak, 53, stood trial for second-degree murder in Harper’s death, but after four months of stop-and-start testimony, he agreed to enter a plea to manslaughter. Ammaklak entered his plea to the lesser charge on the understanding he did not intend to kill Harper, but that his actions “contributed” to her death.

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Friday, May. 12, 2023

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced for the second time in 15 years to a double-digit prison term for killing a woman.

Silas Ammaklak pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the July 2020 slaying of 35-year-old Danielle Harper and was sentenced Friday to 18 years in prison.

“Not only has Mr. Ammaklak showed himself to be a man prone to violence, he has showed himself to be unable or unwilling to take steps to reduce his risk to reoffend and unable or unwilling to control his violent impulses,” said King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond.

Ammaklak, 53, stood trial for second-degree murder in Harper’s death, but after four months of stop-and-start testimony, he agreed to enter a plea to manslaughter. Ammaklak entered his plea to the lesser charge on the understanding he did not intend to kill Harper, but that his actions “contributed” to her death.

Twelve years for racist slaying of cabbie

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Twelve years for racist slaying of cabbie

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, May. 12, 2023

A mentally ill man convicted in the racist slaying of a Winnipeg cab driver has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

Okoth Obeing, 23, was convicted after trial of second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of 44-year-old Balvir Toor in March 2020.

“The killing was senseless, vicious, and brutal,” King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey said in a 27-page written decision released Friday.

Court heard evidence Obeing had a hatred of people of South Asian descent and a dislike of taxi drivers who “disrespected” him by asking for payment upfront.

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Friday, May. 12, 2023

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Okoth Obeing

Reinstated appeal of sentence sought

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Reinstated appeal of sentence sought

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Friday, May. 12, 2023

A Manitoba man, whose three-year prison sentence for weapon and drug offences highlighted how young Indigenous offenders are often treated more harshly by the courts, is fighting to have his appeal heard after succumbing to the advice of “jailhouse counsel” who told him contesting his sentence could mean more time behind bars.

Ethan Wildcat, 21, was sentenced to prison last November. A month later, he filed a notice of appeal. In March, Wildcat abandoned his appeal.

Now Wildcat wants to reinstate his appeal, saying until recently he didn’t have a proper understanding of the process.

“At times, I have trouble understanding things and I often listen to what others tell me to my detriment,” Wildcat said in a court affidavit.

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Friday, May. 12, 2023

Ethan Wildcat wants to reinstate his appeal, saying until recently he didn’t have a proper understanding of the process. (Supplied by Morberg House)

Life sentence, no parole for 15 years for 2020 Lake Manitoba murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Life sentence, no parole for 15 years for 2020 Lake Manitoba murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, May. 10, 2023

Phoenix Maytwayashing couldn’t take no for an answer and Monica Chippeway paid for it with her life, a judge said Wednesday, before sentencing the 23-year-old man to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 15 years.

Chippeway, 35, died March 26, 2020, inside her Lake Manitoba First Nation home, following a frenzied knife attack witnessed by her young daughter.

Maytwayashing was convicted of second-degree murder after a trial last year.

He never denied killing Chippeway, his on-again, off-again girlfriend, but argued at trial he was so intoxicated by drugs and alcohol he had no memory of the attack and should be convicted of the lesser offence of manslaughter.

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Wednesday, May. 10, 2023

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Monica Chippeway, 35, died March 26, 2020, inside her Lake Manitoba First Nation home, following a frenzied knife attack witnessed by her young daughter.

Judge gives man 12 years for attacks on women

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Judge gives man 12 years for attacks on women

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, May. 10, 2023

A Winnipeg man convicted of violent robberies that targeted female escort workers has been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

“These were planned attacks that targeted vulnerable women,” King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne said Tuesday at a sentencing hearing for the 36-year-old offender.

A publication ban prohibits the naming of the man, as it might identify his victims.

The man was convicted after trial of three counts of robbery, three counts of choking to overcome resistance and one count of assault causing bodily harm in connection to three attacks over 16 days in January 2021. He arranged to meet two women in their hotel room and the third at her home after contacting them on a website used by sex trade workers.

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Wednesday, May. 10, 2023

A Winnipeg man convicted of violent robberies that targeted female escort workers has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Defence lawyer’s illness leads to adjournment in doctor’s sex assault trial

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Defence lawyer’s illness leads to adjournment in doctor’s sex assault trial

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, May. 9, 2023

The trial of a Manitoba doctor accused of sexually assaulting five patients was adjourned Tuesday before any testimony could be heard after a member of his defence team informed court he was ill.

The trial of Dr. Arcel Bissonnette, which has heard testimony from five former patients, was set to hear evidence from a Toronto medical expert about appropriate examination protocols.

Lawyer Marty Minuk, one of three lawyers defending Bissonnette, was specifically tasked with cross-examining Dr. Kimberly Wintemute, but was not in a position to do so Tuesday due to health reasons.

Defence lawyer Josh Weinstein asked that the trial be adjourned until Wednesday for an update on Minuk’s status, telling King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond he and co-counsel Lisa LaBossiere were not able to take over for Minuk.

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Tuesday, May. 9, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette has been charged with allegedly assaulting 22 patients between 2004 and 2017.

‘Not something a doctor does’; former patient tells Ste. Anne MD’s sex-assault trial about traumatic internal exam

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

‘Not something a doctor does’; former patient tells Ste. Anne MD’s sex-assault trial about traumatic internal exam

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, May. 8, 2023

A woman who visited Dr. Arcel Bissonnette when she was pregnant said she was left “numb and scared” by a prenatal examination she alleged was clearly sexual.

“It was not something I had ever experienced that wasn’t sexual in nature,” the woman testified Monday. “It’s something you do with a partner, not something a doctor does.”

Bissonnette, 63, is on trial accused of sexually assaulting five female patients during examinations at the Ste. Anne Hospital and Seine Medical Centre.

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Monday, May. 8, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette

Fourth woman testifies in trial of Ste. Anne doctor

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Fourth woman testifies in trial of Ste. Anne doctor

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, May. 5, 2023

A Manitoba woman says she “wrote off” unsettling examinations by her family doctor as the product of “old school” medical procedures before she realized what he was doing wasn’t right.

“After the last exam I was mad, because I knew it was wrong,” the woman testified Friday at the trial of Dr. Arcel Bissonnette.

She is the fourth of five women prosecutors allege Bissonnette sexually assaulted during examinations at the Ste. Anne Hospital and Seine Medical Centre.

The woman in court Friday testified about three examinations during which she alleged Bissonnette inserted a speculum into her rectum without advance warning or her consent.

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Friday, May. 5, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES

She said she initially “wrote off” her first two visits with Dr. Arcel Bissonnette, thinking he was using outdated “old school” medical procedures.

‘I knew something wasn’t right and I didn’t say anything,’ doctor sex assault trial told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

‘I knew something wasn’t right and I didn’t say anything,’ doctor sex assault trial told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, May. 4, 2023

A woman who says she was sexually assaulted by her family doctor years before he was arrested cried in court Thursday, as she described the guilt she suffers from not coming forward sooner.

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Thursday, May. 4, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette arrives at the Law Courts for the first day of evidence in his trial in Winnipeg on Monday.

Woman with stomach pain taken aback by doctor’s vaginal, rectal, breast exams, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Woman with stomach pain taken aback by doctor’s vaginal, rectal, breast exams, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 2, 2023

A Manitoba woman testified Tuesday she was “frozen in shock” as a doctor performed an invasive physical examination that seemingly had no relevance to her medical complaint.

“He didn’t say anything, so I had no idea what he was doing or why he was doing it,” the woman testified about her Aug. 3, 2001, encounter with Dr. Arcel Bissonnette.

Bissonnette, 63, is on trial accused of sexually assaulting five patients during medical examinations at the Ste. Anne Hospital and Seine Medical Centre.

The woman said she was suffering from abdominal pain following emergency surgery for an ovarian cyst when she made an appointment to see Bissonnette, who was filling in for her doctor.

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Tuesday, May. 2, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette at the Law Courts for the first day of evidence in his trial in Winnipeg on Monday.

Woman who alleges family physician sexually assaulted her testifies

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Woman who alleges family physician sexually assaulted her testifies

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Monday, May. 1, 2023

A Manitoba woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by her family physician says she felt it was her “duty” to come forward after learning other women had gone to police with similar claims.

“Before that, I thought I was alone,” the woman testified Monday at the trial of Dr. Arcel Bissonnette.

Bissonnette, 63, is accused of sexually assaulting five female patients during medical examinations at the Ste. Anne Hospital and Seine Medical Centre.

Court heard all five women stepped forward after police issued a media notice in November 2020 announcing his arrest on charges involving six other female patients.

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Monday, May. 1, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette arrives at the Law Courts for the first day of his trial in Winnipeg on Monday. He is accuesd of sexually assaulting five female patients.

Court hears emotional statement from slain taxi driver’s grown children during sentencing hearing for mentally ill killer

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Court hears emotional statement from slain taxi driver’s grown children during sentencing hearing for mentally ill killer

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Apr. 27, 2023

It was March 18, 2020, the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, and Balvir Toor’s wife and children were joking that it was too dangerous to go to work, maybe he should stay home.

But he didn’t. “Pray for me,” the 44-year-old Duffy’s Taxi driver said as he left home to start another long shift behind the wheel.

Hours later Toor was dead, the victim of a shocking, unprovoked attack, with every grim detail captured on his taxi’s security video.

“We wish we could turn back time and stop our father from going to work,” Toor’s three university-age children wrote in a victim impact statement read out in court Thursday at a sentencing hearing for his killer, 23-year-old Okoth Obeing.

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Thursday, Apr. 27, 2023

JESSE BOILY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Taxis lined up in front of the Manitoba Legislative Building in memorial to Balvir Singh Toor on Tuesday, March 24, 2020. Toor was killed in an attack last week.
Reporter:

‘Vile, disgusting degrading’: drug dealer killed, dismembered man in case of mistaken identity

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

‘Vile, disgusting degrading’: drug dealer killed, dismembered man in case of mistaken identity

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2023

A Winnipeg man whose charred and dismembered remains were found outside the city was attacked with a machete and left to die in a bathtub after he was mistaken for someone else at a North End drug house, a court has heard.

Kenneth Andrew Edwards, 30, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the Feb. 10, 2022 killing of 26-year-old Brandon Brust and was sentenced earlier this month to life in prison.

“The whole circumstances are nothing short of vile, disgusting and degrading,” provincial court Judge Kusham Sharma said at an April 3 sentencing hearing.

“This may have initially been a quick act without a lot of planning… but what occurs later was all about planning and deliberation,” she said.

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Wednesday, Apr. 26, 2023

(Ruth Bonneville / Free Press files)

Maximum youth sentence for teen’s violent rampage

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Maximum youth sentence for teen’s violent rampage

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2023

A Winnipeg teen who severely injured an 84-year-old woman in an unprovoked stabbing has been handed a maximum youth sentence of three years custody and community supervision.

The now-16-year-old boy — who pleaded guilty to two counts of aggravated assault in connection with a violent rampage in the Grant Park area July 12, 2022 — had no prior criminal record before the shocking attack, a court heard.

“Legally, this would probably be described as an unprovoked assault,” provincial court Judge Dale Schille told the teen at a sentencing hearing last week.

“That really is an understatement. This is someone who you had no interaction with at all before you attacked her, literally out of the blue.”

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Tuesday, Apr. 25, 2023

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The blood covered sidewalk on Lorette Avenue at Thurso Street where an 84-year-old woman suffered severe injuries in an attack by a fleeing house robber. A stabbing near Grant Park Shopping Centre involved three victims, including an elderly woman who required emergency surgery. Police responded to a stabbing in the 1100 block of Lorette Avenue around 9 p.m. Tuesday. An 84-year-old woman suffered severe injuries in the attack and was brought to the hospital in critical condition, where she received emergency surgery. See Erik Pindera story 220713 - Wednesday, July 13, 2022.

Man jailed after HSC worker caring for child has keys, credit card stolen

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Man jailed after HSC worker caring for child has keys, credit card stolen

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Monday, Apr. 24, 2023

A Winnipeg nurse who has spent more than two decades tending to “the sickest of the sick” says she will never feel safe at work again after the parents of a baby she was caring for stole her car and used her credit cards to go on an $1,800 spending spree.

“I do what I do so that innocent babies get to eventually go home to a grateful and loving family,” the Health Sciences Centre neonatal nurse wrote in a victim impact statement read out in court Monday by her husband.

“Their joy is my joy, their tears are my tears,” the woman wrote. “The worst part is that I was not victimized by a random street thug who broke into the hospital nursery. I was victimized by the very people that we were caring for…. They exploited their sick baby to target the very nurses who were giving everything of ourselves to help their baby recover and go home.”

Adam McKay, 40, pleaded guilty to theft of a motor vehicle, theft, fraudulent use of a credit card and other offences for the July 27, 2022, incident and a handful of unrelated charges and was sentenced to just under 19 months in jail.

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Monday, Apr. 24, 2023

A nurse at Health Sciences Centre says she will never feel safe at work again after the parents of a baby she was caring for stole her car and used her credit cards. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Forgiveness ‘most powerful gift’: pair sentenced for 2020 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Forgiveness ‘most powerful gift’: pair sentenced for 2020 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Apr. 20, 2023

Nairne Chapais was murdered in an ambush shooting outside his Selkirk Avenue home for reasons that have never been explained.

But as grieving family members continue to struggle with the 23-year-old’s May 2020 death, an uncle has offered two of his convicted killers a message of forgiveness.

“The most powerful gift I have received since this incident is the act of forgiveness,” Vernon Gott said in a victim impact statement provided to court, noting Chapais’s sister died by suicide in the wake of his death, while other family members turned to drugs and alcohol to cope with their loss.

“What I have learned about myself is that it is better to forgive so I can carry on in my own life. If I hold onto the resentment it will kill me, and I hope that when you meet the Creator, he will greet you with open arms.”

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Thursday, Apr. 20, 2023

Tyler Jack and Clarence Scott were convicted of second-degree murder for the killing of Nairne Chapais. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Court of appeal upholds acquittal in 2019 stabbing death

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Court of appeal upholds acquittal in 2019 stabbing death

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Apr. 20, 2023

Manitoba’s highest court has upheld the acquittal of a Winnipeg woman charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a 25-year-old mother of four.

Shaylynne Hunter died May 25, 2019, after she was stabbed 21 times outside her Simcoe home.

Diane Tamara King, 22, and co-accused Tasha Laquette, 26, stood trial for the killing in 2021, and were acquitted after a judge ruled King was defending Laquette and herself when she stabbed Hunter.

The Crown appealed King’s acquittal, arguing King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey misapplied the legal test for self-defence.

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Thursday, Apr. 20, 2023

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Shaylynne Hunter died May 25, 2019, after she was stabbed 21 times outside her Simcoe Street home.

Guilty plea marks offender’s second manslaughter conviction in 15 years

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Guilty plea marks offender’s second manslaughter conviction in 15 years

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2023

Four months into a trial plagued by repeated stops and starts, a Winnipeg man has admitted responsibility in the death of 35-year-old Danielle Harper, marking his second homicide conviction in 15 years.

Silas Ammaklak, 53, stood trial for second-degree murder beginning in December, and last week entered a guilty plea to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Ammaklak, who is originally from Nunavut, was always prepared to admit to manslaughter in Harper’s killing, but it was not until recently the Crown was ready to accept his plea, defence lawyer Saheel Zaman told Manitoba Court of King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond on April 14.

“Our position was we were prepared to resolve the matter for a manslaughter, but we can’t do that if the Crown doesn’t accept it,” Zaman said.

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Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2023

Businessman fined for trading without licence

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Businessman fined for trading without licence

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2023

fined for trading without licence

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Wednesday, Apr. 19, 2023

fined for trading without licence

Two men sentenced for killing man they thought was someone else

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Two men sentenced for killing man they thought was someone else

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2023

One after the other, family members told a Winnipeg court how they’d been devastated by the loss of Anthony Sinclair, who was shot dead on a North End street after he was mistaken for another man.

And one after the other, they asked the question for which there is no acceptable answer: Why?

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Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2023

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Family members of victim Anthony Sinclair, left to right, Bernadette Thomas (sister) Cheryl Sinclair (sister) Stephanie Sinclair (pink, sister) Ashley Chomik (Right of Stephanie, mother of one of Anthony’s six children) and Theresa Sinclair (far right, Anthony’s mother).

Father of six killed in case of mistaken identity, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Father of six killed in case of mistaken identity, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2023

The shotgun killing of a Winnipeg father of six riding his bicycle on a North End street was a case of mistaken identity, a court has heard.

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Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2023

SUPPLIED

Jayme-Lea and Anthony Sinclair with two of their sons, Isaiah (left) and Daylan (right). Anthony Sinclair was shot on the evening of Dec. 9 near the intersection of Stella Avenue and McGregor Street. He later died in hospital.

Ghost-gun maker handed harshest prison sentence in Canada

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Ghost-gun maker handed harshest prison sentence in Canada

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Apr. 13, 2023

A Winnipeg man who created and trafficked so-called ghost guns on the city’s black market has received what is believed to be the longest prison sentence in Canada for weapon offences involving a 3D printer.

Blake Ellison-Crate, 24, pleaded guilty Wednesday to 13 firearm offences — including manufacturing and transferring restricted firearms and possession of 3D-printed firearm frames — and was sentenced to 12 years in prison.

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Thursday, Apr. 13, 2023

Eric Gay / The Associated Press Files

A 3D-printed gun called the Liberator.

Five months trafficking drugs nets three years in prison

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Five months trafficking drugs nets three years in prison

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2023

Convicted drug courier Jeremiah Alcera may not have commanded the level of trust prosecutors alleged his drug overlords had in the criminal “novice,” but it was only a matter of time before he would have risen in the ranks, a judge said.

Alcera, 25, was one of 11 people arrested in February 2022 following a joint Winnipeg Police Service and Surrey RCMP investigation that targeted an interprovincial cocaine trafficking network called “The Company.” It had netted $11.5 million in seized drugs, cash and property.

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Wednesday, Apr. 12, 2023

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Convict Jeremiah Alcera was one of 11 people arrested following a joint Winnipeg Police Service and Surrey RCMP investigation that targeted an interprovincial cocaine trafficking network which had netted $11.5 million in seized drugs, cash and property.

Ten years for unprovoked killing of homeless man

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Ten years for unprovoked killing of homeless man

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Saturday, Apr. 8, 2023

A 21-year-old Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his lead role in the unprovoked, alcohol-fuelled beating death of a 52-year-old homeless man.

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Saturday, Apr. 8, 2023

A 21-year-old Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his lead role in the unprovoked, alcohol-fuelled beating death of a 52-year-old homeless man.

Killer’s father outs witnesses as ‘rats’

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Killer’s father outs witnesses as ‘rats’

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Apr. 6, 2023

When Tron Gamblin took to Facebook and outed two women whose testimony in court helped convict his son of murder, he condemned them to a lifetime of fear and “looking over their shoulder,” a court was told this week.

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Thursday, Apr. 6, 2023

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Jesse Gamblin was convicted in the 2019 murder of Norma Andrews.

Man who targeted escorts deserves 13 years: Crown

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man who targeted escorts deserves 13 years: Crown

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 4, 2023

Prosecutors are seeking a 13-year prison sentence for a Winnipeg man guilty of a string of violent robberies in which female escort workers were targeted.

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Tuesday, Apr. 4, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The accused was convicted of choking, assaulting and robbing three women he had arranged to meet after contacting them through a website used by sex trade workers.

Judge hands lottery-ticket thief $425-K ‘life sentence’

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Judge hands lottery-ticket thief $425-K ‘life sentence’

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Apr. 7, 2023

A Manitoba woman has been ordered to repay $425,000 for lottery tickets she stole while working at a Dugald gas bar, a punishment a judge likened to a “life sentence.” Cynthia Hallick was assistant manager at the Sportsman’s Stop Esso when, over the course of four years, she stole thousands of scratch-and-win lottery tickets from her employer.

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Friday, Apr. 7, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

A Manitoba woman has been ordered to repay $425,000 for lottery tickets she stole while working at a Dugald gas bar, a punishment a judge likened to a “life sentence.”

Killer tells judge he ‘will always love’ woman he stabbed to death in 2020

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Killer tells judge he ‘will always love’ woman he stabbed to death in 2020

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Mar. 31, 2023

As he faces a life sentence in prison, Phoenix Maytwayashing said he “will always love” the woman he killed after she rebuffed his efforts to reconcile.

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Friday, Mar. 31, 2023

Monica Chippeway, 35, died inside her Lake Manitoba home following a frenzied knife attack witnessed by her young daughter. (Facebook)

Mothers of victim, killer in road-rage tragedy tearfully embrace outside courtroom

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Mothers of victim, killer in road-rage tragedy tearfully embrace outside courtroom

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Mar. 30, 2023

United in grief, two mothers embraced and shared tears outside a Winnipeg courtroom Thursday after the son of one of the women admitted to killing the other woman’s son in what police at the time described as a fatal case of road rage.

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Thursday, Mar. 30, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Ryan Kelly Legary was stabbed in a parking lot shared by a Tim Hortons restaurant and Petro-Canada gas bar at Fermor Avenue and Lagimodiere Boulevard.

Judge agrees to withdraw woman’s manslaughter guilty plea in toddler stepson’s death

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Judge agrees to withdraw woman’s manslaughter guilty plea in toddler stepson’s death

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 29, 2023

A Winnipeg woman charged in the death of her two-year-old stepson has won her bid to withdraw her guilty plea to manslaughter.

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Wednesday, Mar. 29, 2023

A Winnipeg woman charged in the death of her two-year-old stepson has won her bid to withdraw her guilty plea to manslaughter.

Man admits criminal responsibility, sentenced to six years in prison

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Man admits criminal responsibility, sentenced to six years in prison

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 29, 2023

A Bloodvein First Nation man who was allowed to withdraw his guilty plea for beating another man to death with a baseball bat admitted criminal responsibility for the killing Tuesday and was sentenced to six years in prison.

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Wednesday, Mar. 29, 2023

People enter the Law Courts in Winnipeg on Feb.5, 2018. A Winnipeg court has heard Crown prosecutors are staying six sexual assault charges against a doctor in rural Manitoba. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Trial begins for fatal 2020 rush hour stabbing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Trial begins for fatal 2020 rush hour stabbing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 28, 2023

Ryan Kelly Legary died July 23, 2020, after he was stabbed in the chest following a dispute in the parking lot of a Winnipeg restaurant.

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Tuesday, Mar. 28, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Ryan Kelly Legary died July 23, 2020, after he was stabbed in the chest following a dispute in a parking lot near Lagimodiere Boulevard and Fermor Avenue in Winnipeg.

Man pleads guilty to abusing girls at home daycare

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Man pleads guilty to abusing girls at home daycare

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Friday, Mar. 24, 2023

A Winnipeg man has admitted to sexually abusing two young children at a home-based daycare where he lived.

Robert Prince, 37, appeared in court via video Friday and pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual interference, two counts of making child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

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Friday, Mar. 24, 2023

A Winnipeg man has admitted to sexually abusing two young children at a home-based daycare where he lived.

Robert Prince, 37, appeared in court via video Friday and pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual interference, two counts of making child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.

Woman on run for 16 years sentenced to eight months

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Woman on run for 16 years sentenced to eight months

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Mar. 23, 2023

Iwona Rutkowska disappeared nearly 17 years ago, just days before she was to stand trial in Winnipeg for threatening to kill a man.

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Thursday, Mar. 23, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The Law Courts of Manitoba.

Man asked nephew to punch him as punishment, but blow was fatal

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Man asked nephew to punch him as punishment, but blow was fatal

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 22, 2023

A Winnipeg man punched his uncle once in the head at the older man’s urging, after he was caught apparently sexually assaulting his nephew’s girlfriend.

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Wednesday, Mar. 22, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESSFILES

On Wednesday, a judge spared the 25-year-old man a trip to Headingley Correctional Centre and sentenced him to 18 months of house arrest.

Accused driver in fatal high-speed crash was on bail after being charged in machete attack

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Accused driver in fatal high-speed crash was on bail after being charged in machete attack

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2023

A Winnipeg teen arrested following a fatal high-speed crash in a stolen car was on bail for a violent machete attack four months earlier, a court has heard.

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Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The now-18-year-old accused is charged with dangerous driving causing death for an Oct. 16 collision that killed 81-year-old Corazon Manguerra.

Mountie sues RCMP after being bitten by police dog

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Mountie sues RCMP after being bitten by police dog

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2023

A Manitoba Mountie is suing the RCMP after he was bitten by one of its own service dogs.

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Tuesday, Mar. 21, 2023

A Manitoba Mountie is suing the RCMP after he was bitten by one of its own service dogs. (Darryl Dyck / The Canadian Press files)

Discretionary sentencing powers are underused when it comes to Indigenous offenders, charge legal and rehabilitation professionals

Dean Pritchard 15 minute read Preview

Discretionary sentencing powers are underused when it comes to Indigenous offenders, charge legal and rehabilitation professionals

Dean Pritchard 15 minute read Saturday, Mar. 18, 2023

In the 20 months since he was arrested on a handful of weapon and drug charges, Ethan Wildcat appeared to be doing everything right to turn his young, troubled life around.

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Saturday, Mar. 18, 2023

Man released from jail after murder conviction overturned

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man released from jail after murder conviction overturned

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Mar. 16, 2023

A Winnipeg man, whose conviction for killing a man when he was 16 was overturned on appeal, has been sentenced on a lesser charge and ordered released from jail.

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Thursday, Mar. 16, 2023

(Supplied)

The 22-year-old Winnipeg man was convicted of first-degree murder in the January 2017 shooting death of 25-year-old Tyler Kirton (above).

Murder conviction in ‘rage-fuelled’ 2020 slaying of taxi driver

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Murder conviction in ‘rage-fuelled’ 2020 slaying of taxi driver

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 14, 2023

A Winnipeg man who was in the grip of bipolar disorder when he fatally stabbed a city taxi driver 17 times has been found guilty of second-degree murder.

Lawyers for Okoth Obeing had argued he was so mentally ill, he should be found be found not criminally responsible for killing 44-year-old Balvir Toor on March 19, 2020.

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Tuesday, Mar. 14, 2023

FACEBOOK

Okoth Obeing

Accuser’s testimony lacks credibility to convict retired priest of 1969 residential school sex assault, lawyer argues

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Accuser’s testimony lacks credibility to convict retired priest of 1969 residential school sex assault, lawyer argues

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Mar. 9, 2023

Memories lost to the passage of time and inconsistencies in the testimony of a woman who says she was sexually assaulted by retired Catholic priest Arthur Masse at a residential school more than 50 years ago raise a reasonable doubt as to his guilt, his lawyer argued Wednesday.

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Thursday, Mar. 9, 2023

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Father Arthur Masse, leaves the Law Courts building with his lawyer during lunch break in sexual assault case Tuesday.

Trial testimony cathartic for residential school survivor; 93-year-old former priest denies 1969 indecent assault on child

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Trial testimony cathartic for residential school survivor; 93-year-old former priest denies 1969 indecent assault on child

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 7, 2023

His voice hoarse with age, a long-retired Catholic priest sat in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday and calmly denied sexually assaulting a young girl at a Manitoba residential school more than 50 years ago.

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Tuesday, Mar. 7, 2023

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Victoria McIntosh leaves the court house during a break Tuesday. Victoria McIntosh, identified herself as the victim in the sexual assault case against retired Father Arthur Masse. Retired Father Arthur Masse, of Winnipeg, appeared in court today after his arrest at his home in June and charged with one count of indecent assault. In August, he pleaded not guilty. March 7th,, 2023

‘Not a momentary lapse’: judge sends man to prison after fatal drunk collision

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

‘Not a momentary lapse’: judge sends man to prison after fatal drunk collision

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 7, 2023

A Manitoba man responsible for a fatal highway collision while “significantly intoxicated” on booze and meth has been sentenced to 81/2 years in prison.

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Tuesday, Mar. 7, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Kristopher Ranville, 42, was convicted after trial of driving dangerous causing death, three counts of driving dangerous causing bodily harm, obstructing police and related alcohol and drug driving offences.

Province, Winnipeg police seek court dismissal of proposed vax class action

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Province, Winnipeg police seek court dismissal of proposed vax class action

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Mar. 3, 2023

The province of Manitoba and Winnipeg Police Service are seeking a court order to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit launched last year in response to the police service’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.

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Friday, Mar. 3, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The province of Manitoba and Winnipeg Police Service are seeking a court order to dismiss a proposed class-action lawsuit launched last year in response to the police service’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.

Man found guilty of attacking, robbing sex workers during two-week spree

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man found guilty of attacking, robbing sex workers during two-week spree

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Mar. 3, 2023

A Winnipeg man has been found guilty of a series of violent robberies that preyed upon female escort workers.

Devin Schwark, 35, stood trial in January accused of robbing eight escorts in early 2021. In a written decision released this week, King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne convicted Schwark of assaulting and robbing three victims over 16 days.

Charges involving five additional alleged victims were either dismissed or stayed by the end of Schwark’s three-week trial.

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Friday, Mar. 3, 2023

People enter the Law Courts in Winnipeg on Feb.5, 2018. A Winnipeg court has heard Crown prosecutors are staying six sexual assault charges against a doctor in rural Manitoba. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Seven years for ‘life-altering’ hammer attack

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Seven years for ‘life-altering’ hammer attack

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 1, 2023

The man who beat a Good Samaritan nine times in the head with a hammer so forcefully it became lodged in the victim’s skull has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

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Wednesday, Mar. 1, 2023

JESSICA LEE / FREE PRESS FILES

The attack on Zachary Fitzsimmons happened at the beer store outside the Maryland Hotel.

Judge delivers life sentence in ‘senseless tragedy’ fatal stabbing

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Judge delivers life sentence in ‘senseless tragedy’ fatal stabbing

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 1, 2023

Fighting for his life, 60-year-old Owen Pruden wrested a garden-shear blade from an attacker only to have a stranger jump in and fatally stab him with it, a court has heard.

Jeremiah Christian Zglobicki, 20, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the August 2021 killing and was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years, the minimum period allowed under the Criminal Code.

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Wednesday, Mar. 1, 2023

(John Woods / Canadian Press files)

Lawyer off hook for taking down client’s Facebook account

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Lawyer off hook for taking down client’s Facebook account

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Mar. 3, 2023

A disciplinary panel has found a former Manitoba lawyer not guilty of obstructing justice after he admitted to deactivating the Facebook account of a client who had been arrested on firearm charges.

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Friday, Mar. 3, 2023

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Rohit Gupta was charged with concealing incriminating evidence so as to obstruct justice by hindering a police investigation. He appeared before a Law Society of Manitoba disciplinary panel last month.

Plea deal for speeding cop in serious crash sends dangerous message, lawyer argues

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

Plea deal for speeding cop in serious crash sends dangerous message, lawyer argues

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Monday, Feb. 27, 2023

A decision to stay a dangerous driving charge against a Winnipeg cop responsible for a high-speed collision that sent a woman to hospital in critical condition is raising questions about how police are treated by the justice system.

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Monday, Feb. 27, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Karl Gowenlock is a criminal defence attorney in Winnipeg.

No parole option for 12 years for role in ‘horrific’ 2020 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

No parole option for 12 years for role in ‘horrific’ 2020 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, Feb. 27, 2023

A once-aspiring teacher has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years in the grisly slaying of a Bolivian immigrant.

Chelsea O’Hanley, 26, is one of four people sentenced to prison terms in the June 2020 murder of Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe, who was tortured for days in a Winnipeg home before he was killed and his body was burned and buried on the edge of a field in Portage la Prairie.

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Monday, Feb. 27, 2023

Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe was tortured for three or four days in the basement of the house, and suffered an array of brutal injuries, including multiple stab wounds to his back, severed fingers and major skull trauma.

Man convicted of mother’s 2019 murder released on bail pending appeal

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man convicted of mother’s 2019 murder released on bail pending appeal

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Feb. 24, 2023

A Winnipeg man found guilty of bludgeoning his mother to death in her bed when he was 16 has been released on bail pending appeal and retained a lawyer instrumental in overturning several high-profile wrongful convictions.

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Friday, Feb. 24, 2023

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue. 211104 - Thursday, November 04, 2021.

Couple who severely abused twins appeal prison sentences

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Couple who severely abused twins appeal prison sentences

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023

A Manitoba couple convicted of almost killing their twin babies due to months of abuse and neglect are appealing their double-digit prison sentences.

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Thursday, Feb. 23, 2023

A Manitoba couple convicted of almost killing their twin babies due to months of abuse and neglect are appealing their double-digit prison sentences.

WPS officer charged in high-speed crash that resulted in critical injuries gets plea deal, pays speeding fine

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

WPS officer charged in high-speed crash that resulted in critical injuries gets plea deal, pays speeding fine

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023

A Winnipeg police officer who was driving 50 kilometres an hour over the speed limit without just cause when he was involved in a two-vehicle collision that sent a city woman to hospital in critical condition has been fined $780.

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Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023

A Winnipeg Police Service cruiser car with lights and sirens responds to a call through downtown Winnipeg Wednesday morning-For files- Sept 11, 2013 (JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS)

Admitted killer convicted of murder in fatal stabbing

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Admitted killer convicted of murder in fatal stabbing

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023

A Winnipeg woman attacked by a stranger for no reason on a North End street needed a “hero” and Tre Pelletier-Monkman was the one to answer the call, a defence lawyer told jurors at Pelletier-Monkman’s second-degree murder trial Tuesday.

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Wednesday, Feb. 22, 2023

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Police investigate the scene of an assault near Dufferin Ave. at Main St., June 16, 2021. Tre Pelletier-Monkman is charged with fatally stabbing victim Adam Albert Laforrest.

Stabbing intended to stop attack on woman, not kill her assailant, accused in murder trial testifies

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Stabbing intended to stop attack on woman, not kill her assailant, accused in murder trial testifies

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Feb. 17, 2023

A Winnipeg man on trial for murder admits stabbing stranger Adam Laforrest to death on a North End street, but was only trying to save a woman from dying at the victim’s hands, jurors were told Thursday.

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Friday, Feb. 17, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

A Winnipeg man on trial for murder admits stabbing stranger Adam Laforrest to death on a North End street, but was only trying to save a woman from dying at the victim’s hands, jurors were told Thursday.

Trafficker off to prison after appeal court rejects mental illness argument

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Trafficker off to prison after appeal court rejects mental illness argument

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023

Manitoba’s highest court has overturned a probationary sentence for a man arrested in a massive meth and cocaine bust, ruling he must serve prison time because his mental illness played no role in his decision to traffic drugs.

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Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023

RCMP HANDOUT / FREE PRESS FILES

Anthony Cerezo-Brennan was among 11 people arrested in Calgary and Manitoba in December 2019 as part of an RCMP sting that took 22 kilograms of meth and 43 kilograms of cocaine off the streets.

Adult time sought for Ex shooter

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Adult time sought for Ex shooter

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023

Justice officials will seek an adult sentence for a Winnipeg teen who has admitted responsibility for the daylight shooting at the Red River Exhibition last summer that sent two boys to hospital and fairgoers scrambling for cover.

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Thursday, Feb. 16, 2023

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Security personnel search people in June 2022 as they enter the Red River Ex a day after police arrested three people following the shooting of two people on the festival’s grounds.

Court finds disbarred immigration lawyer liable for $2.4M

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Court finds disbarred immigration lawyer liable for $2.4M

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023

A disbarred Winnipeg immigration lawyer has been found liable for more than $2.4 million the Law Society of Manitoba paid to clients he swindled.

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Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Disbarred Winnipeg immigration lawyer and former president of the provincial Liberal party Paul Hesse.

Judge sends man to prison, has message to public for ‘beyond the pale’ bus stop attack

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Judge sends man to prison, has message to public for ‘beyond the pale’ bus stop attack

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023

A Winnipeg man has been sentenced to four years in prison after admitting to biting off part of a man’s ear during an unprovoked attack at a West End bus stop.

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Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023

ERIK PINDERA/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Court heard the victim was at the corner of Notre Dame Avenue and Arlington Street at about 11 p.m. when Nathaniel Aaron Pittman with no warning, punched him in the head and took him to the ground.

Brandon woman sues province, RHA for refusing to treat son with alcohol addiction

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Brandon woman sues province, RHA for refusing to treat son with alcohol addiction

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023

A Brandon woman is suing the province and Prairie Mountain Health alleging her son died one day after medical staff at Brandon Regional Health Centre denied him treatment for his alcohol addiction.

Ryan Eamer, 46, died Feb. 19, 2021, after his mother Brenda Eamer found him unconscious in his Brandon home.

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Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2023

A Brandon woman is suing the province and Prairie Mountain Health alleging her son died one day after medical staff at Brandon Regional Health Centre denied him treatment for his alcohol addiction. (Karen McKinley/The Brandon Sun files)

Air-travel issues creating crisis in northern circuit court system: chief judge

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Air-travel issues creating crisis in northern circuit court system: chief judge

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023

Manitoba’s circuit court system is in crisis as undependable flight services are causing repeated cancellations of hearings across the province’s north country, denying residents access to justice, sources have told the Free Press.

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Thursday, Feb. 9, 2023

WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS FILES

Planes at Perimeter Aviation

Court of Appeal upholds conviction, sentence in city lawyer’s murder

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Court of Appeal upholds conviction, sentence in city lawyer’s murder

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023

The Manitoba Court of Appeal has upheld the conviction of a man sentenced to life in prison for the murder of a city lawyer, rejecting his claim jurors were not properly instructed about the rules of self-defence.

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Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023

FACEBOOK

Justin Silicz, 32, died on June 2, 2019, after he was stabbed while walking to his car from an after-hours club with friends.

Judge sends man to prison for 13 years in unprovoked near-fatal stabbing on city bus

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Judge sends man to prison for 13 years in unprovoked near-fatal stabbing on city bus

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023

A Winnipeg man responsible for an unprovoked knife attack that nearly claimed the life of a 70-year-old woman as she rode a city bus home following an afternoon of shopping has been sentenced to 13 years in prison.

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Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023

SUPPLIED

Peter Radulescu stabbed an elderly woman seated in front of him on a transit bus eight times in the neck, chest and back last year.

New trial ordered in West Broadway slaying in 2019

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

New trial ordered in West Broadway slaying in 2019

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

Manitoba’s highest court has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of killing a stranger in an unprovoked knife attack while high on meth.

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Sunday, Feb. 5, 2023

Robert Donaldson, 51, was fatally stabbed when he a friend were walking near the intersection of Sherbrook Street and Sara Avenue on a June evening in 2019. (Facebook)

Abusive father, husband gets break on sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Abusive father, husband gets break on sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Feb. 3, 2023

A Winnipeg man who held his wife and children as virtual hostages during a violent, two-year reign of terror has had his prison sentence reduced by four years.

In a written decision released last week, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled medical evidence not heard at the man’s trial or sentencing that suggests mental illness played a role in his crimes and served to reduce his moral responsibility, justifies a reduction in his 13-year prison sentence.

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Friday, Feb. 3, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled medical evidence not heard at the man’s trial or sentencing that suggests mental illness played a role in his crimes and served to reduce his moral responsibility, justifies a reduction in his 13-year prison sentence.

Woman seeks to withdraw guilty plea in death of toddler

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Woman seeks to withdraw guilty plea in death of toddler

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023

A Winnipeg woman accused of fatally injuring her two-year-old stepson knew what she was doing when she agreed to plead guilty to manslaughter and should not be allowed to withdraw her plea, a judge was told Wednesday.

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Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Victoria Reane Thiessen, 23, entered a guilty plea to the March 2020 killing over a year ago, but is fighting to withdraw it.

Couple charged with handing out cannabis candy insist they meant no harm

Chris Kitching and Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Couple charged with handing out cannabis candy insist they meant no harm

Chris Kitching and Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023

A Winnipeg couple charged with handing out bags of cannabis edibles to children on Halloween night insist they made a mistake and were not trying to harm trick-or-treaters.

Police arrested Sheldon Chochinov, 63, and Tammy Sigurdur, 53, a day after kids received bags of THC candy, which look similar to bags of children’s sweets, in south Tuxedo.

Chochinov and Sigurdur have each been charged with 13 counts of distributing cannabis to a young person and 13 counts of distributing cannabis knowing it is illegal.

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Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2023

Cannabis gummies can look like regular candy. (Supplied)

Couple accused of distributing cannabis had run out of Halloween candy: search warrants

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Couple accused of distributing cannabis had run out of Halloween candy: search warrants

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023

A Winnipeg couple say they ran out of candy to hand out on Halloween night when it is alleged they topped up their treat bowl with strictly adult cannabis-laced confections.

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Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023

WPS HANDOUT / FREE PRESS FILES

The couple was arrested one day after police received complaints from several parents, who said their children had returned home that night with Nerds Rope candies that contained 600 mg of THC each in their treat bags.

Accused killer to be assessed by psychiatrist

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Accused killer to be assessed by psychiatrist

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023

A Manitoba man accused of murdering his parents and stabbing his nursing supervisor in the entrance of a city hospital will argue he was not criminally responsible for his actions.

Trevor Farley appeared in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday. A judge approved a Crown application ordering that he undergo a forensic psychiatric assessment.

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Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023

Trevor Farley, 38, is charged with first-degree murder in the killing of his mother, with second-degree murder in the killing of his father, and with attempted murder for a knife attack on a nursing supervisor at Seven Oaks Hospital. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Man pleads guilty in near-fatal 2021 knife attack aboard city bus

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man pleads guilty in near-fatal 2021 knife attack aboard city bus

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

Winnipeg Transit passengers screamed in horror and ran for the exit after Peter Radulescu pulled out a knife and calmly stabbed an elderly woman seated in front of him eight times in the neck, chest and back, a court has heard.

Radulescu, 44, pleaded guilty Monday to one count of attempted murder for the Jan. 12, 2021, attack.

Guilty pleas for attempted murder are rare, as it is considered among the most difficult criminal offences to prove.

Radulescu will return to court Feb. 6, when Crown and defence lawyers are expected to jointly recommend King’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris sentence Radulescu to 13 years in prison.

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Monday, Feb. 6, 2023

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Peter Radulescu stabbed an elderly woman seated in front of him in a city bus eight times in the neck, chest and back, a court has heard.

Five years for 2020 one-punch death

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Five years for 2020 one-punch death

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Jan. 27, 2023

A fatal attack on a 41-year-old Winnipeg man was met with “shocking” indifference by passersby, even after his body was dragged on to a busy Main Street roadway, a court has heard.

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Friday, Jan. 27, 2023

A fatal attack on a 41-year-old Winnipeg man was met with “shocking” indifference by passersby, even after his body was dragged on to a busy Main Street roadway, a court has heard.

Judge acquits man of inflicting injuries on his toddler

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Judge acquits man of inflicting injuries on his toddler

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Jan. 27, 2023

A judge acquitted a Winnipeg man Thursday of inflicting injuries on his toddler that left the girl blind and unable to speak — but made clear the ruling did not mean he thought the man was innocent.

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Friday, Jan. 27, 2023

A judge acquitted a Winnipeg man Thursday of inflicting injuries on his toddler that left the girl blind and unable to speak — but made clear the ruling did not mean he thought the man was innocent.

Crown stays sex assault charges in first of three trials for Ste. Anne doctor

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Crown stays sex assault charges in first of three trials for Ste. Anne doctor

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023

A woman who claims she was sexually assaulted by her doctor more than a decade ago says she has lost faith in the justice system after charges involving six other alleged victims were stayed in court.

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Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2023

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette (left) had been charged with committing a total of 22 counts of sexual assault on female patients in Ste. Anne between 2004 and 2017. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Adult sentence for Canada Day 2020 murder

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Adult sentence for Canada Day 2020 murder

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Monday, Jan. 23, 2023

A Winnipeg teen has been sentenced as an adult to life in prison for a Canada Day shooting spree that left a 27-year-old mother of four dead and three others injured.

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Monday, Jan. 23, 2023

JESSE BOILY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

A Winnipeg teen was convicted after a trial of first-degree murder in the slaying of Danielle Cote (pictured) and several related offences.

Trial of doctor charged with sex assaults adjourned again

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Trial of doctor charged with sex assaults adjourned again

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Monday, Jan. 23, 2023

The trial of a rural Manitoba doctor accused of sexually assaulting several of his female patients was adjourned yet again Monday, prompting a judge to question whether the proceeding can be completed in the four weeks that have been set aside for it.

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Monday, Jan. 23, 2023

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Dr. Arcel Bissonnette (left) has been charged with a total of 22 counts of sexual assault against female patients in Ste. Anne between 2004 and 2017.

Church plea bargain nets $30K fine for breaking pandemic gathering orders

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Church plea bargain nets $30K fine for breaking pandemic gathering orders

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023

A Manitoba church that repeatedly flouted provincially imposed gathering limits at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic has been fined $30,000.

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Thursday, Jan. 12, 2023

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Church of God Restoration pastor Tobias Tissen speaks from a truck as RCMP officers and Manitoba Justice officials blocked the entrance to The City of God Church in Sarto, just south of Steinbach, to enforce Manitoba Health COVID-19 orders Sunday, November 29, 2020. Reporter: Abas

Two years house arrest for fake immigration consultant

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Two years house arrest for fake immigration consultant

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023

A Winnipeg man who falsified bank records and other documents to help would-be immigrants secure entry to Canada has been sentenced to two years house arrest.

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Wednesday, Jan. 11, 2023

Chinenye Alozie pleaded guilty to acting as an unauthorized immigration consultant and misrepresenting or withholding facts on immigration applications. (Supplied)

Son who murdered mother to serve youth sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Son who murdered mother to serve youth sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

A Winnipeg man who bludgeoned his mother to death in her bed when he was 16 will not serve a life sentence in prison, a judge has ruled.

“There is no doubt the offence was extremely violent and brutal,” King’s Bench Justice Anne Turner said Tuesday, but prosecutors did not satisfy her that the circumstances of the case demanded the now-20-year-old be sentenced as an adult for the crime.

The man stood trial for first-degree murder in the March 2019 slaying, but was convicted by a jury in June 2022 of the lesser offence of second-degree murder.

Turner sentenced him to the maximum youth sentence of seven years custody, three years of which are to be served under conditional supervision in the community.

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Tuesday, Jan. 10, 2023

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

King’s Bench Justice Anne Turner sentenced the accused to the maximum youth sentence of seven years custody, three years of which are to be served under conditional supervision in the community.

No parole eligibility for 10 years for 2021 murder

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

No parole eligibility for 10 years for 2021 murder

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

A Winnipeg man who fatally attacked his teenage friend following an alcohol-fuelled argument has been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

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Monday, Jan. 9, 2023

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Police investigate the July 2021 homicide of 17-year-old Jaden Oman at the Manitoba Housing complex at 375 Assiniboine Ave. in Winnipeg. Samuel Hastings pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the killing, Monday.

Man sues ex-coach’s estate

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man sues ex-coach’s estate

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023

An Ontario man is suing the estate of a former minor hockey coach and lawyer, alleging that as a teen, he was repeatedly sexually abused and photographed in “compromising and degrading situations” at the man’s Winnipeg home.

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Thursday, Jan. 5, 2023

A 42-year-old man has filed a statement of claim filed in Manitoba’s Court of King’s Bench alleging Robert (Bob) Dawson groomed and sexually abused him as a child while Dawson was a coach with the Assiniboine Park Hockey Association in the early to mid-1990s. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Crown drops fraud charge against disgraced former funeral director

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Crown drops fraud charge against disgraced former funeral director

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

A former Winnipeg funeral director accused of defrauding dozens of grieving families is no longer facing criminal prosecution.

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Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Former funeral director Chad Wheeler accused of defrauding dozens of grieving families is no longer facing criminal prosecution.

Man charged with murders in Christmas Day apartment fire has previous arson convictions

Chris Kitching and Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

Man charged with murders in Christmas Day apartment fire has previous arson convictions

Chris Kitching and Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

A Winnipeg man accused of killing two people and injuring four others in a deliberately set fire at a downtown apartment block on Christmas Day has past arson convictions, court records show.

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Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2023

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES

Police said Roger Glen Doblej, 63, and Suzanne Helen McCooeye, 70, died, and four other people were injured after a fire set inside a suite at about 4 a.m. sent smoke throughout the Warwick Apartments on the 300 block of Qu’Appelle Avenue.

Fire, lies, fake injuries: MPI annual top fraud list

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Fire, lies, fake injuries: MPI annual top fraud list

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022

Auto scammers beware: you never know who is watching and you’re not as smart as you think.

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Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Manitoba Public Insurance has released its annual list of the year’s top-five attempted frauds — proving once again that when it comes to hare-brained flim-flams, the keystone province continues to punch above its weight.

Two men convicted of murder in 2020 beating death

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Two men convicted of murder in 2020 beating death

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Friday, Feb. 10, 2023

A judge has convicted two men of second-degree murder following a trial that laid bare the violence pervading the city’s illegal drug trade.

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Friday, Feb. 10, 2023

Mohamed Mohiadin Ahmed’s body was found floating in the Red River in October of 2020. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Judge will take month to make ‘difficult’ bail decision for youth charged in library slaying

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Judge will take month to make ‘difficult’ bail decision for youth charged in library slaying

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Friday, Dec. 23, 2022

A 16-year-old boy arrested in the slaying of 28-year-old Tyree Cayer at the Millennium Library two weeks ago will have to wait another month to learn if he will be released from custody.

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Friday, Dec. 23, 2022

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A 16-year-old boy arrested in the slaying of 28-year-old Tyree Cayer at the Millennium Library two weeks ago will have to wait another month to learn if he will be released from custody.

Woman pleads guilty, sentenced to life in prison in grandmother’s grisly murder

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Woman pleads guilty, sentenced to life in prison in grandmother’s grisly murder

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Friday, Dec. 23, 2022

A 24-year-old Manitoba woman has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years after admitting to bludgeoning her grandmother to death with an axe.

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Friday, Dec. 23, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

A 24-year-old Manitoba woman has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years after admitting to bludgeoning her grandmother to death with an axe.

Bagel shop owner accused of drug trafficking

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Bagel shop owner accused of drug trafficking

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022

The co-owner of a Sherbrook Street bagel shop has been making dough, not just in his kitchen but as a “high-ranking” drug trafficker, justice officials allege in newly filed court documents.

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Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

On Thursday afternoon, the bagel shop was open, but few customers stopped in.

Cause of victim’s death couldn’t be determined, murder trial hears

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Cause of victim’s death couldn’t be determined, murder trial hears

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022

Danielle Harper was stabbed five times in the chest and lower body, but that wasn’t enough to kill her, a pathologist told the trial of a man charged with her murder.

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Thursday, Dec. 22, 2022

Third sex-assault trial ordered for retired RCMP officer

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Third sex-assault trial ordered for retired RCMP officer

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022

A retired RCMP officer, who was twice convicted of sexually assaulting a nine-year-old girl, has been ordered to stand trial a third time.

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Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2022

The accused was convicted a second time last year following a trial before provincial court Judge Keith Eyrikson, who increased the man’s original sentence from 10 months to 18 months in jail. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Contempt sentence slashed after appeal by key witness

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Contempt sentence slashed after appeal by key witness

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022

A Winnipeg woman convicted of contempt of court after she tried to evade testifying at the trial of four murder suspects she helped police identify has had her 10-month jail sentence slashed in half by Manitoba’s highest court.

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Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2022

In September 2018, Sandra Lavallee was the lone witness to a group beating in a Pritchard Avenue home that claimed the life of 40-year-old Jason James. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

12 years for fatal attack outside beer vendor

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

12 years for fatal attack outside beer vendor

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

A judge has rejected a recommended life sentence for a man who killed a new immigrant after striking him on the head with a crutch, finding he could not have anticipated the deadly consequences of his actions.

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Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES

Norman Pruden was sentenced to 12 years.

Jury convicts Gimli man of murder in shooting of 20-year-old woman

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Jury convicts Gimli man of murder in shooting of 20-year-old woman

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

Hailey Dugay died after being struck by gunfire on a dark country road while headed to a house party with her boyfriend and others after their night at the bar was unexpectedly cut short.

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Friday, Dec. 16, 2022

FACEBOOK

Hailey Dugay, 20, was shot and killed on November 17, 2018.

Accused serial killer’s lawyer concerned about disclosure

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Accused serial killer’s lawyer concerned about disclosure

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022

A pretrial hearing set next month for accused serial killer Jeremy Skibicki has been cancelled after his lawyers raised concerns about the volume of disclosure in the case.

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Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022

Jeremy Skibicki has been charged with four counts of first-degree murder. (Facebook)

Guilty charge in stabbing death

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Guilty charge in stabbing death

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022

A judge rejected a Manitoba man’s claim he had no memory stabbing his on-again, off-again girlfriend more than two dozen times and convicted him Tuesday of second-degree murder.

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Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue. 211104 - Thursday, November 04, 2021.

Killer denied Balaquit family ‘basic dignity of closure,’ judge says, handing down 16-year sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Killer denied Balaquit family ‘basic dignity of closure,’ judge says, handing down 16-year sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Dec. 12, 2022

A judge sentenced Kyle Pietz to 16 years in prison for killing office cleaner Eduardo Balaquit Monday, as family of the slain man continued to yearn for the day they can properly lay him to rest.

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Monday, Dec. 12, 2022

ERIK PINDERA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Edward Balaquit holds a photograph of his father, Eduardo Balaquit.

Mental illness caused fatal stabbing of cabbie: defence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Mental illness caused fatal stabbing of cabbie: defence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Dec. 9, 2022

Prosecutors and defence lawyers agree Okoth Obeing was in the grip of bipolar disorder when he fatally stabbed a city cab driver 17 times.

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Friday, Dec. 9, 2022

FACEBOOK

Okoth Obeing

Notorious wife-killer granted day parole

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Notorious wife-killer granted day parole

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022

A Winnipeg man sentenced to life in prison after he chased down his estranged wife on a crowded Portage Avenue near Assiniboine Park and stabbed her to death has been granted day parole.

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Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022

Jeff De Booy / Winnipeg Free Press files

Memorial for Kelly Stewner on Portage Avenue near the corner of Overdale Street, where she was killed by her husband, Bruce Stewner in 1994.

Hard time for parents who severely abused twins

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Hard time for parents who severely abused twins

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022

More than three years after their twin babies were taken to hospital suffering from such extreme malnourishment that they were near death, a Manitoba couple has been handed double-digit prison sentences in a case a judge described as “heartbreaking.”

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Thursday, Dec. 8, 2022

Crown seeks life sentence for 2021 manslaughter

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Crown seeks life sentence for 2021 manslaughter

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022

In jail awaiting sentencing for an unprovoked, fatal attack on a recent immigrant, Norman Pruden stood before a judge Wednesday and offered a few brief words of apology.

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Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Man said he should get life for slaying, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man said he should get life for slaying, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022

SILAS Ammaklak, who already had one manslaughter conviction, told police he should spend “the rest of (his) life in jail” after he was arrested for killing a woman he had just met.

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Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022

Silas Ammaklak, who already had one manslaughter conviction, told police he should spend “the rest of (his) life in jail” after he was arrested for killing a woman he had just met. (Winnipeg Free Press)

‘I could rip their… soul open’: Man accused of killing cabbie told police he felt disrespected

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

‘I could rip their… soul open’: Man accused of killing cabbie told police he felt disrespected

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

A man on trial for the unprovoked killing of a city cab driver told police people who disrespect him “don’t know what I’m capable of.”

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Thursday, Dec. 1, 2022

FACEBOOK

Okoth Obeing.

Booze, rage fuelled killing of innocent woman on rural road, trial told

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Booze, rage fuelled killing of innocent woman on rural road, trial told

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022

A drunken bar fight, damaged pride and “a whole lot of anger” were the catalysts for a fatal shooting that took the life of an innocent woman on a dark country road four years ago, a jury heard Tuesday.

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Tuesday, Nov. 29, 2022

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

William Ryerson Comber, 23, is on trial for second-degree murder.

Nygard lawyer Prober reprimanded for comments on alleged victims

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Nygard lawyer Prober reprimanded for comments on alleged victims

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Monday, Nov. 28, 2022

The Law Society of Manitoba has reprimanded Winnipeg lawyer Jay Prober for repeated comments he made in the media alleging women accusing fallen fashion magnate Peter Nygard of sex crimes were lying and looking for money.

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Monday, Nov. 28, 2022

WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Jay Prober alleged Peter Nygard’s accusers were trying to cash in on the mounting sexual assault claims against his client.

‘Strong message must be sent’: 19 years for internet luring, child porn

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

‘Strong message must be sent’: 19 years for internet luring, child porn

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Friday, Nov. 25, 2022

An online sex predator who victimized hundreds of children across the globe and enlisted a network of other pedophiles to do the same has been sentenced to 19 years in prison.

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Friday, Nov. 25, 2022

Kenneth Emerson's arrest in July 2020 led to the discovery of tens of thousands of pages of internet chat room logs in which he manipulated child victims into performing sex acts for him. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Man accused of killing cabbie made racist remarks, court told

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man accused of killing cabbie made racist remarks, court told

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Nov. 25, 2022

A Winnipeg man accused of stabbing a city cab driver to death in an unprovoked attack made racially charged comments to police in which he admitted to the killing, a judge was told Thursday.

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Friday, Nov. 25, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Family of murdered cab driver Balvir Toor arrive at the law courts building Wednesday afternoon.

Fatal stabbing of cab driver fuelled by prepayment request: Crown

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Fatal stabbing of cab driver fuelled by prepayment request: Crown

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022

Okoth Obeing had not been taking his bipolar disorder medication when he stabbed Winnipeg taxi driver Balvir Toor to death, but the killing had nothing to do with his mental illness, a judge was told Wednesday.

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Wednesday, Nov. 23, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

A police presence on Burrows Avenue between McGregor Street and Andrews Street in Winnipeg on Thursday, March 19, 2020. Winnipeg Free Press 2020

‘Can’t imagine the horror they went through’: man not criminally responsible for 2021 random double homicide

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

‘Can’t imagine the horror they went through’: man not criminally responsible for 2021 random double homicide

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Monday, Nov. 21, 2022

Driven by voices he could neither ignore nor control, Karlton Dean Reimer stabbed strangers Dennis and Bernadette Lidgett to death in their Lorette-area home.

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Monday, Nov. 21, 2022

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`

Dennis and Bernadette Lidgett

‘Scared for my life:’ accused killer says he was acting in self-defence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

‘Scared for my life:’ accused killer says he was acting in self-defence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Nov. 18, 2022

A Winnipeg man accused of stabbing another man to death following a quarrel over a small debt told a judge Friday he was acting in self-defence after the victim attacked him first.

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Friday, Nov. 18, 2022

WINNIPEG POLICE HANDOUT

Dylan James Mousseau has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.

Crown asks for adult sentence in 2019 murder

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Crown asks for adult sentence in 2019 murder

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Monday, Nov. 7, 2022

Prosecutors are seeking an adult sentence of life in prison for a Winnipeg man convicted of bludgeoning his mother to death in her bed when he was 16.

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Monday, Nov. 7, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The Law Court.

Guilty pleas in group attack on northern woman

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Guilty pleas in group attack on northern woman

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Nov. 4, 2022

Two people charged with aggravated sexual assault, following what police described at the time as a violent group attack on a 34-year-old Norway House woman, have pleaded guilty to reduced charges and were released from custody.

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Friday, Nov. 4, 2022

(Winnipeg Free Press files)

Courts wrong place to deal with prison and parole racism, judge says

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Courts wrong place to deal with prison and parole racism, judge says

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022

Indigenous offenders face greater hurdles winning parole from prison than any other group, but that doesn’t mean the courts can fix the problem with more lenient sentences, a judge ruled this week.

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Thursday, Nov. 3, 2022

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Prosecutors recommended Michael Fox serve 16 years in custody before being allowed to apply for parole.

Officer just doing his job by seizing media camera, judge told

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Officer just doing his job by seizing media camera, judge told

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022

A Winnipeg police officer wasn’t infringing on freedom of the press when he seized a photojournalist’s camera at a crime scene, a judge was told Wednesday.

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Wednesday, Nov. 2, 2022

A Winnipeg police officer wasn’t infringing on freedom of the press when he seized a photojournalist’s camera at a crime scene, a judge was told Wednesday.

Ex-cadet leader gets 13 years for child luring

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Ex-cadet leader gets 13 years for child luring

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022

A former officer with the Canadian Cadet program has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after admitting to grooming and sexually exploiting three teenage girls under his wing.

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Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022

Robert Gale pleaded guilty to two counts of child luring, two counts of sexual exploitation and one count of criminal harassment for offences committed when the victims were between 15 and 17 years of age. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Charge stayed against mom whose baby was found dead

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Charge stayed against mom whose baby was found dead

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022

Justice officials have stayed charges against a Winnipeg woman who was arrested after her infant daughter was found dead in a garbage bin last May.

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Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022

FACEBOOK

Court records show the charges against Jeanene Rosa Moar were stayed Oct. 5, one week after she was granted release on bail.

Drunk driver who killed friend appeals conviction

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Drunk driver who killed friend appeals conviction

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022

Lawyers for a Manitoba man sentenced to six months jail for an alcohol-related truck rollover incident that killed his 16-year-old best friend are appealing his conviction.

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Saturday, Oct. 29, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue.

211104 - Thursday, November 04, 2021.

No recommendations in inquest report after suicide in soon-to-be-replaced police station

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

No recommendations in inquest report after suicide in soon-to-be-replaced police station

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Friday, Oct. 28, 2022

A newly released inquest report has made no recommendations in the case of a man who committed suicide while in custody in a Winnipeg police holding room with no video monitoring.

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Friday, Oct. 28, 2022

A newly released inquest report has made no recommendations in the case of a man who committed suicide while in custody in a Winnipeg police holding room with no video monitoring.

Man jailed 23 months for assault on toddler

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man jailed 23 months for assault on toddler

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Oct. 28, 2022

A Winnipeg man convicted of assaulting his toddler stepson after claiming he held him “too hard” has been sentenced to 23 months in jail.

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Friday, Oct. 28, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue. 211104 - Thursday, November 04, 2021.

Accused killer tells court he doesn’t recall stabbing girlfriend, apologizes to her family

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Accused killer tells court he doesn’t recall stabbing girlfriend, apologizes to her family

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022

Phoenix Maytwayashing didn’t deny stabbing his on-again, off-again girlfriend more than two dozen times, but told a Winnipeg courtroom this week he had no memory of the fatal attack.

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Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022

FACEBOOK

Monica Chippeway died in 2020 inside her Lake Manitoba First Nation home following a frenzied attack witnessed by her young daughter.

Exhausted, stressed Crown attorneys leaving Manitoba’s prosecutions branch, advocacy group says

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Exhausted, stressed Crown attorneys leaving Manitoba’s prosecutions branch, advocacy group says

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022

Burnout, unmanageable workloads and stagnant pay are draining the Manitoba justice system of seasoned prosecutors, sending them to greener pastures out of province, the private sector or early retirement, the Manitoba Association of Crown Attorneys said Wednesday.

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Wednesday, Oct. 26, 2022

(Winnipeg Free Press files)

Monk sentenced to 11 years for child sex abuse

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Monk sentenced to 11 years for child sex abuse

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022

A former Buddhist monk who subjected two young girls to years of sexual abuse at a Winnipeg temple has been sentenced to 11 years in prison.

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Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022

Silaphet abused the two victims between 2016 and 2019 during visits to the Wat Lao Xayaram temple on Sinclair Street where he had been head monk for more than 12 years. (Jesse Boily / Winnipeg Free Press files)

City firm files $1-M suit against Assiniboine Park Conservancy

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

City firm files $1-M suit against Assiniboine Park Conservancy

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022

Another lawsuit has been added to Assiniboine Park’s Leaf project.

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Tuesday, Oct. 25, 2022

Architectural firm Architecture49 Inc. alleges Assiniboine Park Conservancy Inc. owes it nearly $1 million in unpaid invoices after construction flaws by subcontractors necessitated redesign work on the project. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Crown seeks adult sentences for youth in 2020 shooting spree

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Crown seeks adult sentences for youth in 2020 shooting spree

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Oct. 24, 2022

Two teens facing possible life sentences for a Winnipeg shooting spree that left one woman dead and three others wounded could be released from custody in as little as 2 1/2 years, a court heard Monday.

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Monday, Oct. 24, 2022

JESSE BOILY / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

A vigil for Danielle Cote, who was shot and killed, was held on the 400 block of Flora Street.

Man charged in recent slaying was free on bail, accused of assaulting bus driver

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man charged in recent slaying was free on bail, accused of assaulting bus driver

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 21, 2022

A Winnipeg man accused of killing 27-year-old Creedence Justin Beardy on Oct. 2 was free on bail after being charged with assaulting a Winnipeg Transit driver with bear spray.

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Friday, Oct. 21, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

The scene where Creedence Justin was found unresponsive near Sherbrooke Street and Cumberland Avenue in Winnipeg on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022. For — story. Winnipeg Free Press 2022.

First-degree murder charges for teens accused in Main Street homicide

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

First-degree murder charges for teens accused in Main Street homicide

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Friday, Oct. 21, 2022

Two 15-year-old males arrested in two killings in Winnipeg’s Point Douglas neighbourhood now face first-degree murder charges for one of the slayings.

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Friday, Oct. 21, 2022

Marvin William Felix was attacked in an alley off the 600 block of Main Street in August and died three days later. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Suspects released, legal expert asks why

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Suspects released, legal expert asks why

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Oct. 21, 2022

It was a violent assault that left a downtown shopkeeper in hospital with a likely life-altering brain injury.

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Friday, Oct. 21, 2022

A 65-year-old man was assaulted and left with serious injuries after he confronted a group of alleged shoplifters at a Donald Street convenience store he operated with his wife, who sustained minor injuries. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press)

‘He was hurting her’: Girl tried to protect mom

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

‘He was hurting her’: Girl tried to protect mom

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022

A seven-year-old girl rushed to her mother’s aid as she was being stabbed to death, only to have the attacker turn the knife on her, a Winnipeg courtroom heard Wednesday.

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Thursday, Oct. 20, 2022

FACEBOOK

Monica Chippeway was stabbed to death inside her Lake Manitoba First Nation home.

Prosecutors take rural collision case to appeals court

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Prosecutors take rural collision case to appeals court

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022

Justice officials are appealing a judge’s decision sentencing a Manitoba man to just six months in jail for an impaired driving crash that killed his 15-year-old best friend.

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Tuesday, Oct. 18, 2022

Kyle Nolan Devos was convicted of one count each of impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving in connection to the April 7, 2018, crash that killed his friend. He was sentenced to six months in custody. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Crown to seek life for teen accused in bridge killing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Crown to seek life for teen accused in bridge killing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Oct. 14, 2022

Crown seeks life for teen in stabbing case

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Friday, Oct. 14, 2022

Richard Dominic Anthony Contois died May 6 following a confrontation near the Slaw Rebchuk Bridge. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files)

New trial ordered in police assault case

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

New trial ordered in police assault case

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022

Manitoba’s highest court has ordered a new trial in the case of a family awarded more than $100,000 after they accused police of assaulting them during a confrontation in a Winnipeg hotel room.

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Thursday, Oct. 13, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue. 211104 - Thursday, November 04, 2021.

Court ruling gives man hope police will probe mom’s 2004 death

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Court ruling gives man hope police will probe mom’s 2004 death

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022

Nearly 20 years after Jessie Garwood suffered a fatal fall in her Windsor Park home, her son hopes a civil judgment against the woman he believes is responsible, will convince police and justice officials to reopen an investigation into her death.

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Tuesday, Oct. 11, 2022

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Jim Garwood alleges his mother was the victim of foul play at the hands of his former step-granddaughter Catherine Johnson, the last person to see Jessie Garwood alive and the person who discovered her body.

Community’s support sways judge in sentencing drunk driver who killed friend

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Community’s support sways judge in sentencing drunk driver who killed friend

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Friday, Oct. 7, 2022

Spinning “doughnuts” in his truck at high speed on the family farm was something Kyle Nolan Devos told police he “did for fun.”

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Friday, Oct. 7, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue. 211104 - Thursday, November 04, 2021.

Man guilty of killing 28-year-old woman as she slept

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man guilty of killing 28-year-old woman as she slept

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022

A Winnipeg man has been found guilty in the September 2019 killing and torture of a woman he had accused of being “a rat.”

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Thursday, Oct. 6, 2022

FACEBOOK

Norma Andrews, 28, was killed Sept. 21, 2019.

Nearly two years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Nearly two years behind bars for a murder he didn’t commit

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022

A Winnipeg man who spent 20 months in jail for a murder he didn’t commit returned to court Monday to be sentenced for trying to clean up the crime scene.

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Wednesday, Oct. 5, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Michael Spence was charged with second-degree murder after 28-year-old Matthew Sutherland was found suffering from multiple stab wounds outside Spence’s St. Matthews Avenue home on Oct. 31, 2019.

Family robbed of father, son, speak of grief at trucker’s sentencing

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Family robbed of father, son, speak of grief at trucker’s sentencing

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022

A truck driver responsible for a fatal collision that sparked a provincial commitment to twin a dangerous stretch of the Trans-Canada Highway has been fined $3,000 and suspended from driving for four months.

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Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022

JESSICA LEE / FREE PRESS FILES

The Barren Lake and Trans Canada Hwy intersection near Ontario is photographed on August 4, 2022. In 2019, Mark Lugli and his son Jacob Lugli were tragically killed at this intersection when an eastbound transport truck plowed into Mark’s westbound truck. There was stopped traffic trying to turn left and the transport driver was trying to avoid the stopped traffic and drove into the westbound lane. Reporter: Chris Kitching

Man charged in bus sex assaults

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man charged in bus sex assaults

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022

A Winnipeg man arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two women on a Transit bus has been convicted of similar offences as recently as 2020, court records show.

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Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2022

ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

A 36-year-old man is facing sexual assault charges for allegedly groping bus passengers last month.

Wracked with anger, man who killed daughter blames ex and her family

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

Wracked with anger, man who killed daughter blames ex and her family

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Thursday, Sep. 29, 2022

Frank Nausigimana admits he killed his three-year-old daughter Jemimah Bundalian while enraged, stabbing her twice in the chest, but in a courtroom Thursday he blamed the child’s grieving mother and family.

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Thursday, Sep. 29, 2022

GOFUNDME / FREE PRESS FILES

Frank Nausigimana admits he killed his three-year-old daughter Jemimah Bundalian while enraged, stabbing her twice in the chest.

Judge puts river-trail attacker behind bars for 14 years

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Judge puts river-trail attacker behind bars for 14 years

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 27, 2022

A Winnipeg man’s own history of being sexually abused as a child set him on a criminal path that ended with his arrest for attacking three women and a teenage girl along the city’s Red River trail system, a judge has heard.

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Tuesday, Sep. 27, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The river trail between The Forks and Churchill Drive in Winnipeg where a number of victims were sexually assaulted.

One suspect, 69 charges in series of break-ins: police

Erik Pindera and Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

One suspect, 69 charges in series of break-ins: police

Erik Pindera and Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 27, 2022

Winnipeg police property crime investigators have arrested a man accused in a nine-month spree of break-ins.

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Tuesday, Sep. 27, 2022

Winnipeg police property crime investigators have arrested a man accused in a nine-month spree of break-ins.

Rookie Tory MLA hit with lawsuit

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Rookie Tory MLA hit with lawsuit

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, Sep. 26, 2022

Rookie Tory MLA and entrepreneur Obby Khan is facing a lawsuit alleging he has failed to repay more than $560,000 in support provided to his eight-year-old juice company.

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Monday, Sep. 26, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

“These allegations are without merit and will be disproven in court,” Khan, the MLA for Fort Whyte, said in a brief email to the Free Press.

Three arrested in St. Norbert slaying

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Three arrested in St. Norbert slaying

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Sep. 23, 2022

Police have taken three men into custody for the slaying of a 59-year-old St. Norbert man in July.

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Friday, Sep. 23, 2022

Salah Falah Hasan died after he was shot around 3 a.m. on July 3 inside his home on the 200 block of Houde Drive. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press files)

City police use decoy bikes to arrest four thieves

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

City police use decoy bikes to arrest four thieves

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Thursday, Sep. 22, 2022

As sure as the sun will rise, if you leave a bicycle unlocked and untended in Winnipeg long enough, someone will try to steal it.

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Thursday, Sep. 22, 2022

BORIS MINKEVICH / FREE PRESS FILES

Police urge everyone who has had a bike stolen to report it, saying it helps them pinpoint high crime areas and focus resources.

North to run for Manitoba grand chief

Dean Pritchard 1 minute read Preview

North to run for Manitoba grand chief

Dean Pritchard 1 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 21, 2022

Sheila North, a Winnipeg TV anchor and former Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak grand chief, has announced her candidacy to become the grand chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs.

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Wednesday, Sep. 21, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES

Sheila North, a member of the Bunibonibee Cree Nation, was grand chief of MKO, the northern chiefs organization, from 2015 to 2018 and more recently a news anchor with CBC Manitoba.

Young enough to work, too old for benefits?

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Young enough to work, too old for benefits?

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, Sep. 20, 2022

When Kildonan Long Term Care Home opened its doors more than 20 years ago, Pamela Sam was there to greet its first residents.

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Tuesday, Sep. 20, 2022

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Sean Sam said older employees should be entitled to the same benefits as younger ones, especially at a time when the health-care sector is desperate to hire and retain staff and is encouraging retirees to return to the workplace.

Son sentenced in mom’s slaying; family wishes him ‘a better life’

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Son sentenced in mom’s slaying; family wishes him ‘a better life’

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Sep. 16, 2022

Family members still grieving the slaying of a 35-year-old St. Theresa Point woman told a judge her killer — her son — remains loved and prayed he will “get the help he needs” in prison.

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Friday, Sep. 16, 2022

Family members still grieving the slaying of a 35-year-old St. Theresa Point woman told a judge her killer — her son — remains loved and prayed he will “get the help he needs” in prison.

Battered woman admits to killing husband

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Battered woman admits to killing husband

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Sep. 15, 2022

Madeline Harper loved her husband and he loved her, she told a Winnipeg court, but when Dalius Harper drank, it could unleash a fury no amount of affection could contain.

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Thursday, Sep. 15, 2022

Five Manitobans, including a pastor who openly defied COVID-19 restrictions, have been convicted of repeatedly violating pandemic public health orders and are to learn their sentence Thursday. People enter the Law Courts in Winnipeg, Monday, February 5, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Man accused of stabbing stranger downtown released three times on separate charges

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man accused of stabbing stranger downtown released three times on separate charges

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 14, 2022

A Winnipeg man accused of stabbing a stranger on a downtown street and chasing others with a knife was on bail for assaulting two police officers and other charges, court records show.

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Wednesday, Sep. 14, 2022

Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press.

Police were called to the area of Memorial Boulevard and St. Mary Avenue after a 41-year-old man was stabbed in the chest and several people were threatened and chased by a man brandishing a knife.

Probation ‘exercise in futility’ for accused in sex crimes, court told

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Probation ‘exercise in futility’ for accused in sex crimes, court told

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, Sep. 12, 2022

Months before Winnipeg police arrested Miguel Giasson for a string of alleged sex crimes, a court was warned he posed a “well-above average” risk to reoffend and had made no effort to co-operate with probation authorities.

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Monday, Sep. 12, 2022

WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Miguel Giasson was arrested Sept. 7, and charged with breaking into a home and three counts of committing an indecent act, in connection with three separate incidents.

Good deeds don’t erase drug broker’s crimes, judge rules

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Good deeds don’t erase drug broker’s crimes, judge rules

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Sunday, Sep. 11, 2022

Lord Kofi Agyapong-Mensah turned his attention to mentoring Winnipeg youth after he was released from a California prison for his part in a cross-border scam that bilked seniors out of at least $280 million.

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Sunday, Sep. 11, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The total amount of drugs seized thourhgout the investigation called Project Declass was 22 kilograms of meth and 43 kilograms of cocaine with a street value of 6.5 million dollars.

New name for Manitoba court after Queen’s death

Dean Pritchard 1 minute read Preview

New name for Manitoba court after Queen’s death

Dean Pritchard 1 minute read Friday, Sep. 9, 2022

Following the death of Queen Elizabeth Thursday, so too passes Manitoba’s Court of Queen’s Bench, in name at least.

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Friday, Sep. 9, 2022

Five Manitobans, including a pastor who openly defied COVID-19 restrictions, have been convicted of repeatedly violating pandemic public health orders and are to learn their sentence Thursday. People enter the Law Courts in Winnipeg, Monday, February 5, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

No parole for 13 years for ‘particularly brutal’ strangling

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

No parole for 13 years for ‘particularly brutal’ strangling

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Sep. 9, 2022

A Winnipeg man who pushed police to shoot him after strangling a woman to death in her Riverton Avenue home has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 13 years.

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Friday, Sep. 9, 2022

FACEBOOK

Cody Don Saunders was convicted of second-degree murder by a jury for the October 2019 killing of Karen Letniak.

Defence fights second psych assessment of man charged with killing Lorette couple

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Defence fights second psych assessment of man charged with killing Lorette couple

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Sep. 7, 2022

Lawyers for a man charged in the slaying of an elderly Lorette couple are fighting a move by prosecutors to secure a forensic assessment of their client, just two months before he is set to go on trial.

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Wednesday, Sep. 7, 2022

WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Lawyers of the accused Karlton Dean Reimer, who have secured their own private psychiatric assessment, argued the Crown’s move to secure a second assessment order was an “abuse of process.”

Serial killer’s parole eligibility offically shortened

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Serial killer’s parole eligibility offically shortened

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Sep. 2, 2022

Manitoba’s highest court has formally struck down a sentence that would prevent convicted serial killer John Ostamas from applying for parole for 75 years.

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Friday, Sep. 2, 2022

John Paul Ostamas (Facebook)

Frustrated judge hands drunk driver 51-month term

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Frustrated judge hands drunk driver 51-month term

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Sep. 1, 2022

A Manitoba man who initially claimed he was asleep in the back seat of his car during a drunk-driving collision that killed a Selkirk father of three admitted responsibility only after DNA seized from an airbag and other evidence put him squarely in the driver’s seat, a court has heard.

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Thursday, Sep. 1, 2022

family photo

Fifty-year-old Martin Robak died in a car crash in 2018.

False confession claim in bid to withdraw manslaughter plea

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

False confession claim in bid to withdraw manslaughter plea

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022

A Winnipeg woman who admitted responsibility in the death of her toddler stepson is now trying to withdraw her manslaughter plea, claiming she falsely confessed to police.

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Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2022

Victoria Reane Thiessen pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the March 2020 death of two-year-old Brett White. (Allison White photo)

Winnipeg woman fined for crash that killed daughter

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Winnipeg woman fined for crash that killed daughter

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Aug. 29, 2022

A Yazidi woman who fled Islamic State atrocities for a new life in Canada has been fined $200 after admitting responsibility for a fatal collision that claimed the life of her five-year-old daughter.

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Monday, Aug. 29, 2022

FACEBOOK

Five-year-old Binsaa Ahmed was killed after two vehicles on Dalhousie Drive crashed head-on in June 2019.

Mending battered twins’ broken babyhood

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Mending battered twins’ broken babyhood

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Friday, Aug. 26, 2022

Three years after she and her 11-month old twin brother were taken to a rural Manitoba hospital near death — their bodies broken and malnourished — Jody thanks God in her prayers every night that she can walk and talk.

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Friday, Aug. 26, 2022

Road rager sentenced to 10 months in jail

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Road rager sentenced to 10 months in jail

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Aug. 26, 2022

A Winnipeg man responsible for a terrifying road rage attack that made headlines around the world and left his two victims fearing for their lives has been sentenced to 10 months in jail.

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Friday, Aug. 26, 2022

Kiana Jobo (above) said she feared she and her father, Jomar Jobo, were going to die. (Winnipeg Free Press)

Judge fines five defiant, repeated COVID rule-breakers total of more than $100K

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Judge fines five defiant, repeated COVID rule-breakers total of more than $100K

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022

Fined $34,000 for repeatedly breaching public-health orders intended to curb the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Patrick Allard said he had no regrets as he walked out of the Winnipeg Law Courts Thursday afternoon.

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Thursday, Aug. 25, 2022

ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Patrick Allard (Right) speaks to Tobias Tissen as they leave the Manitoba courts in Winnipeg.

Unrepentant pandemic health-order violators await sentencing

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Unrepentant pandemic health-order violators await sentencing

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022

Five Manitobans arrested after they repeatedly violated pandemic gathering restrictions told a judge Wednesday they were fighting against a campaign of “government overreach” that robbed them of their most basic rights.

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Wednesday, Aug. 24, 2022

ETHAN CAIRNS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

Patrick Allard (right) speaks to Tobias Tissen as they leave the Law Courts on Wednesday.

Court asked to stop Dakota Tipi election after conflict alleged

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Court asked to stop Dakota Tipi election after conflict alleged

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022

A Dakota Tipi First Nation councillor wants the Federal Court to halt a fast-approaching election, alleging the band’s electoral officer was appointed after previously promising to fix an election “for the right amount of money.”

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Tuesday, Aug. 23, 2022

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Dakota Tipi First Nation councillor Karl Stone in 2016.

Assault charge stayed against daycare operator

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Assault charge stayed against daycare operator

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022

Prosecutors have stayed criminal proceedings against an unlicensed daycare operator who was accused of assaulting an infant in her care, just two months after she lost her fight to quash her trial.

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Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022

Prosecutors have stayed criminal proceedings against an unlicensed daycare operator who was accused of assaulting an infant in her care, just two months after she lost her fight to quash her trial.

Priest accused in residential school sex assault pleads not guilty

Dean Pritchard 1 minute read Preview

Priest accused in residential school sex assault pleads not guilty

Dean Pritchard 1 minute read Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022

A retired priest accused of sexually assaulting a 10-year-old girl at a Manitoba residential school over 50 years ago will be going to trial.

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Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022

Father Arthur Masse (La Société historique de Saint-Boniface)

Headingley women’s jail hit by COVID outbreak

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Headingley women’s jail hit by COVID outbreak

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022

THE Women’s Correctional Centre in Headingley has been placed on COVID-19 outbreak status after more than a dozen inmates tested positive.

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Thursday, Aug. 18, 2022

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

All correctional staff and inmates at the jail are being required to wear medical-grade masks and all inmate visits have been suspended.

Internet predator who sought break handed longer sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Internet predator who sought break handed longer sentence

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022

Manitoba’s highest court has added three years to a convicted child sex predator’s five-year prison sentence, rejecting his claim his “cognitive deficits” reduced his responsibility for his crimes.

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Tuesday, Aug. 16, 2022

WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The appeal court’s sentence for convicted child sex predator Patrick Sinclair was the same one originally recommended by the Crown.

CFS fails to get girl to court for trial of man charged with sexually assaulting her

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

CFS fails to get girl to court for trial of man charged with sexually assaulting her

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Aug. 15, 2022

The trial of a Manitoba man accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl had to be adjourned last week after the child-welfare agency responsible for her care failed to get her to court.

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Monday, Aug. 15, 2022

The trial of a Manitoba man accused of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl had to be adjourned last week after the child-welfare agency responsible for her care failed to get her to court.

No parole for 12 years for 2020 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

No parole for 12 years for 2020 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Aug. 5, 2022

A Winnipeg man responsible for the drug house slaying of 24-year-old Vincent Ross was sentenced Friday to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 12 years.

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Friday, Aug. 5, 2022

JESSE BOILY / FREE PRESS FILES

Christian Bruce admitted shooting Vincent Ross at a College Avenue apartment but claimed he did not intend to kill him.

Anti-lockdown quintuple lose charter challenge ahead of trial

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Anti-lockdown quintuple lose charter challenge ahead of trial

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022

Five alleged pandemic scofflaws set to stand trial later this month will not be able to argue Manitoba public health orders violated their charter rights, a judge has ruled.

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Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022

DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Retiree and COVID-19 lockdown opponent Gerry Bohemier (pictured), Hugs over Masks organizer Sharon Vickner, anti-lockdown rally organizers Todd McDougall and Patrick Allard, and Church of God (Restoration) pastor Tobias Tissen were individually charged for alleged repeated violations of public health orders.

Killer tells court he thinks about friend, can’t explain why he pulled trigger

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Killer tells court he thinks about friend, can’t explain why he pulled trigger

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022

In the midst of a meth binge, Christian Bruce aimed a sawed-off rifle at the head of a man he considered a friend and shot him dead.

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Wednesday, Aug. 3, 2022

JESSE BOILY / FREE PRESS FILES

Christian Bruce admitted shooting Vincent Ross at a College Avenue apartment known to be a street-gang drug house but claimed he did not intend to kill him.

Man pleads guilty to manslaughter

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man pleads guilty to manslaughter

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Jul. 29, 2022

Nevis Carter and Oghenetega Ufuoma didn’t know each other, but they had a couple of things in common: each struggled with mental illness and were living on the street.

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Friday, Jul. 29, 2022

The bus shelter at River and Osborne where the attack occurred. (Jessica Lee / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Woman convicted in slaying of Bolivian immigrant

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Woman convicted in slaying of Bolivian immigrant

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 27, 2022

Chelsea O’Hanley claimed she had no idea Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe’s battered body was in the trunk of her SUV when she drove three people — now convicted in his murder — to Portage la Prairie in June 2020.

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Wednesday, Jul. 27, 2022

SUPPLIED

Clockwise from top left: Jonathan Bradley Narvey, Bobby Lynn Hall, Chelsea O’Hanley and Kyle Sinkovits.

Court dismisses charter challenge in 2021 double homicide case

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Court dismisses charter challenge in 2021 double homicide case

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Jul. 22, 2022

A Steinbach man arrested in the slaying of an elderly couple has been dealt a legal blow in his charter challenge to quash a move to bring him to trial without the benefit of a preliminary hearing.

Karlton Dean Reimer, 28, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the March 2021 stabbing deaths of 77-year-old Dennis Lidgett and his wife Bernadette Lidgett, 73, at their home near Lorette.

Crown prosecutors are proceeding by direct indictment, meaning the case will go straight to trial without a preliminary hearing.

Preliminary hearings are held in provincial court, after which a judge rules whether there is sufficient evidence to bring the case to trial.

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Friday, Jul. 22, 2022

Dennis and Bernadette Lidgett, pictured after a family hike in Rushing River Provincial Park, one of their favourite camping spots. The couple was killed in their home last year. (Supplied)

Three charged in stabbing of Ukrainian refugee at The Forks

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Three charged in stabbing of Ukrainian refugee at The Forks

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Friday, Jul. 22, 2022

Two men and a youth have been arrested for the stabbing of a refugee from Ukraine at The Forks earlier this month.

After poring through hours of CCTV surveillance footage and interviewing witnesses, investigators were able to identify suspects and arrest them on Wednesday and Thursday, Winnipeg police said on Friday.

Two refugees from Ukraine were walking near the Canadian Museum for Human Rights when they told witnesses they had accidentally bumped into three men on July 1 at about 10:40 p.m.

Despite apologizing, both were bear sprayed and one was stabbed.

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Friday, Jul. 22, 2022

The two Ukrainian refugees were attacked on this stretch of Israel Asper Way on Canada Day. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press files)

No trial date, no comment: family accused of staged hate crime left Canada in 2020

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

No trial date, no comment: family accused of staged hate crime left Canada in 2020

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 20, 2022

Nearly two years after vowing they wanted “their day in court,” three members of a Winnipeg family accused of staging a hate crime at their now-defunct River Heights restaurant remain outside the grasp of Manitoba prosecutors.

Alexander and Oxana Berent and their son, Maxim Berent, were charged with public mischief after alleging their Corydon Avenue restaurant, BerMax Caffé and Bistro, had been the target of four antisemitic attacks in 2019.

Arguing they had no financial supports in the city and were being ostracized by the local religious community, the three accused were given court approval to relocate to Los Angeles in January 2020, with the expectation they would return to Winnipeg for trial the following October.

But as the trial date approached, and the COVID-19 pandemic was raging, the Berents, through their lawyers, told court they didn’t have the resources to comply with a 14-day quarantine requirement if they returned to Winnipeg.

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Wednesday, Jul. 20, 2022

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/John Woods

Crown appeals decision of police entrapment

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Crown appeals decision of police entrapment

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 19, 2022

Prosecutors are appealing a judge’s decision striking down a Manitoba man’s conviction for luring a minor over the internet.

Michael Lymych, 36, was arrested in 2019, as part of a Winnipeg Police Service investigation, called Project Hook, which targeted the online luring of minors.

Queen’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris convicted Lymych after trial of one count of luring and making sexually explicit material available to a minor. However, in a ruling last month, Harris quashed the convictions after finding police had entrapped Lymych.

In a notice of appeal filed July 15, Crown prosecutors argue Harris “erred in his application of the law of entrapment.” Court documents do not detail the error or errors alleged by the Crown.

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Tuesday, Jul. 19, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
In a notice of appeal filed July 15, Crown prosecutors argue Queen’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris “erred in his application of the law of entrapment.” Court documents do not detail the error or errors alleged by the Crown.

Ex-staffer sues Headingley jail over alleged sexual assault

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Ex-staffer sues Headingley jail over alleged sexual assault

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Jul. 18, 2022

A Winnipeg woman has filed a lawsuit against Headingley Correctional Centre, claiming jail officials knew her co-worker had a history of sexual harassment when he allegedly sexually assaulted her as they worked an overnight shift together.

Former correctional officer Narada Hines is named as a defendant in a statement of claim filed in Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench last week. Hines, 42, is set to stand trial in September on a single count of sexual assault.

“Hines’ employment provided the opportunity to commit the assault on the plaintiff,” the statement of claim alleges. “The plaintiff had previously advised her superiors that Hines’ conduct toward her was inappropriate and unwelcome, but Hines and the plaintiff were nonetheless scheduled to work an overnight shift in close proximity to each other.”

Hines had supervisory responsibility over part-time corrections officers at the jail when around July 2016 he was stripped of his supervisory duties after he was found to have sexually harassed a colleague, the statement of claim alleges.

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Monday, Jul. 18, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
The Headingley Correctional Institute in Headingley.

Crown blocks challenge by anti-lockdown protesters

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Crown blocks challenge by anti-lockdown protesters

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Jul. 15, 2022

Five Manitobans set to stand trial next month for repeatedly violating pandemic restrictions were in court Friday as Crown officials tried to block their charter challenge of the charges.

Retiree and lockdown opponent Gerry Bohemier, Hugs over Masks organizer Sharon Vickner, anti-lockdown rally organizers Todd McDougall and Patrick Allard, and Church of God (Restoration) pastor Tobias Tissen were individually charged for alleged repeated violations of public health orders involving outdoor gatherings between November 2020 and May 2021.

The five co-defendants have filed notices of application arguing their arrests were in violation of their charter right to assembly.

The Crown countered with its own motion to dismiss the defence motion, arguing before provincial court Judge Victoria Cornick on Friday that the issue had already been settled in an October ruling by Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal.

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Friday, Jul. 15, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Anti-lockdown rally organizers Todd McDougall is anti-lockdown protesters individually charged for alleged repeated violations of public health orders involving outdoor gatherings between November 2020 and May 2021.

‘Victimization of children spanned the globe’: Crown seeks 22 years for internet luring, child porn

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

‘Victimization of children spanned the globe’: Crown seeks 22 years for internet luring, child porn

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 13, 2022

The arrest of a Winnipeg sex predator uncovered a network of abuse that spanned the globe and victimized hundreds of children, a court heard Wednesday.

Kenneth Emerson’s arrest in July 2020 led to the discovery of tens of thousands of pages of internet chat room logs in which he manipulated child victims into performing sex acts for him.

“The chats discovered on the accused’s phone revealed that the accused had directly victimized hundreds of children, created and distributed child sexual abuse material, and tried to assist other like-minded offenders in connecting with children to abuse in their jurisdiction,” Crown attorney Katie Dojack told provincial court Judge Wanda Garreck.

“These chats show that the accused’s online victimization of children spanned the globe and included children in the U.K., Canada, Australia, Italy, USA, New Zealand, Ireland, Romania, Guatemala and Sweden.”

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Wednesday, Jul. 13, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Judge rules man’s rights violated, but upholds sentence

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Judge rules man’s rights violated, but upholds sentence

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Jul. 13, 2022

WINNIPEG police violated a city man’s charter rights when they denigrated his sexual orientation during an interrogation, but that’s not enough to overturn his convictions for sexually abusing three nephews, Manitoba’s highest court has ruled.

The 60-year-old man was convicted of three counts of sexual interference and two counts of invitation to sexual touching. He was sentenced last year to 10 years in prison.

The man — who is not being named to protect the identity of his victims — appealed his conviction, and asked for a stay on all charges. He argued then-Det. Sgt. Elton Hall (now an inspector with the major crimes unit) was abusive and insulting during an interrogation that denigrated his sexual orientation and called into question his relationship with his husband.

“Det. Sgt. Hall’s conduct was a serious departure from the expected standard and undermined the integrity of the justice system, constituting a (charter breach),” Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Karen Simonsen said in a written ruling.

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Wednesday, Jul. 13, 2022

The Law Courts building in Winnipeg (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Judge cites intoxication, brain injury in manslaughter conviction

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Judge cites intoxication, brain injury in manslaughter conviction

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Jul. 12, 2022

A Pukatawagan man who admitted beating a 22-year-old woman to death with a rock has been found not guilty of second-degree murder after a judge ruled he was so impaired by alcohol he could not form the intent to kill.

In a decision released last month, Queen’s Bench Justice James Edmond convicted 24-year-old August Thunder Caribou of the lesser offence of manslaughter in the June 24, 2020, killing of Treena Castel.

“I am not satisfied that the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was able to form the specific intent to kill Ms. Castel,” Edmond said.

Caribou killed Castel the same day he graduated high school and four days after finishing his last shift working as a guard at the Pukatawagan RCMP detachment.

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Tuesday, Jul. 12, 2022

A Pukatawagan man who admitted beating a 22-year-old woman to death with a rock has been found not guilty of second-degree murder after a judge ruled he was so impaired by alcohol he could not form the intent to kill.

In a decision released last month, Queen’s Bench Justice James Edmond convicted 24-year-old August Thunder Caribou of the lesser offence of manslaughter in the June 24, 2020, killing of Treena Castel.

“I am not satisfied that the Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was able to form the specific intent to kill Ms. Castel,” Edmond said.

Caribou killed Castel the same day he graduated high school and four days after finishing his last shift working as a guard at the Pukatawagan RCMP detachment.

Assailant given 4½ years for ‘brutal’ attack

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Assailant given 4½ years for ‘brutal’ attack

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Saturday, Jul. 2, 2022

A judge has sentenced a Winnipeg man to 4 1/2 years in prison for a fatal attack on a stranger.

Derrik Lawrence Edward Smith, 23, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for an unprovoked attack on 24-year-old Denzel Constant, on Oct. 12, 2020, that resulted in his death a day later from a catastrophic brain injury.

“Mr. Smith’s actions were… brutal and brazen,” Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond said Thursday. “This is callous street violence and is totally unacceptable in our community.”

Constant and a friend were walking on Salter Street near Burrows Avenue around 8:30 p.m. when Smith and another man approached them and demanded Constant surrender his backpack. When he did, Smith struck Constant in the head with the backpack, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head on the sidewalk. Inside the backpack were a glass bong and metal canteen.

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Saturday, Jul. 2, 2022

A judge has sentenced a Winnipeg man to 4 1/2 years in prison for a fatal attack on a stranger.

Derrik Lawrence Edward Smith, 23, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for an unprovoked attack on 24-year-old Denzel Constant, on Oct. 12, 2020, that resulted in his death a day later from a catastrophic brain injury.

“Mr. Smith’s actions were… brutal and brazen,” Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond said Thursday. “This is callous street violence and is totally unacceptable in our community.”

Constant and a friend were walking on Salter Street near Burrows Avenue around 8:30 p.m. when Smith and another man approached them and demanded Constant surrender his backpack. When he did, Smith struck Constant in the head with the backpack, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head on the sidewalk. Inside the backpack were a glass bong and metal canteen.

No parole for 20 years for 2020 torture, murder

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

No parole for 20 years for 2020 torture, murder

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 29, 2022

Born in Bolivia, Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe and his young wife moved to Canada in hopes of building a better life, only to have their dreams dashed in the most horrifying way.

After settling in the Steinbach area, Reimer-Wiebe, struggling with life in a new country and raising a young family, turned to alcohol and drugs.

“I was completely at rock bottom,” Reimer-Wiebe said in a 2018 video recorded for Teen Challenge, a faith-based counselling service he leaned on for help with his addictions.

Reimer-Wiebe rebounded for a time, but relapsed, and by June 2020, the 27-year-old man was staying in a Winnipeg home.

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Wednesday, Jun. 29, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
One of the killers Kyle Evan Sinkovits pleaded guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder and was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years.

Sex convictions quashed: judge finds man entrapped by police

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Sex convictions quashed: judge finds man entrapped by police

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Jun. 28, 2022

A Winnipeg man found guilty of luring a minor over the Plenty of Fish dating website has had his convictions quashed after a judge ruled police had entrapped him.

Michael Joseph Lymych was convicted last year after being tried for internet luring and making sexually explicit material available to a minor.

Lymych, 36, was arrested as part of a Winnipeg Police Service investigation, Project Hook, which targeted the online luring of minors.

Following his conviction, Lymych applied for a judicial stay, alleging an abuse of process by police. Lymych argued police had no reason to believe he would commit a crime, and but for the actions of an undercover police officer posing as a 14-year-old girl, he would not have been induced to commit one.

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Tuesday, Jun. 28, 2022

The Law Courts building in Winnipeg (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Woman accused of assault on toddler loses custody appeal

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Woman accused of assault on toddler loses custody appeal

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, Jun. 27, 2022

A woman accused of seriously injuring a baby at her unlicensed daycare has lost a court fight for custody of her own child.

In a written ruling released last week, the Court of Appeal of Manitoba upheld a family court decision awarding sole custody of her seven-year-old son to her ex-husband.

The 40-year-old woman was charged with aggravated assault in June 2019, after a six-month-old boy suffered multiple and life-altering head injuries while allegedly at her unlicensed daycare.

“We are not persuaded that the trial judge made any error that would allow us to interfere with his decision,” Justice Chris Mainella wrote on behalf of the appeal court.

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Monday, Jun. 27, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
A woman accused of seriously injuring a baby at her unlicensed daycare has lost a court fight for custody of her own child.

Police HQ contractor accused of altering invoices to settle old debts

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Police HQ contractor accused of altering invoices to settle old debts

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Jun. 24, 2022

Caspian Construction, the company at the centre of a city lawsuit involving the beleaguered Winnipeg police headquarters project, altered invoices to settle old debts with its subcontractors, newly filed court documents allege.

“In short, there are many irregularities in the Caspian defendant’s invoicing and the payment of subtrade invoices on the (project),” City of Winnipeg lawyers Michael Finlayson and Gabrielle Lisi alleged in a motion brief filed on June 14.

“They appeared to settle debts with subtrades from prior projects by altering invoices with or without subtrade involvement, and submitting them to the city,” the lawyers wrote.

The headquarters project was budgeted at $137.1 million in 2011 and ballooned to $210 million by the time it was completed five years later.

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Friday, Jun. 24, 2022

BORIS MINKEVICH / FREE PRESS FILES
After a lengthy RCMP investigation resulted in no charges, the city filed a lawsuit against Caspian Construction in January 2020, alleging the contractor and two dozen other defendants conspired and “schemed” to inflate the cost of the project for their own benefit.

Teen found guilty of murder in mother’s bludgeoning death

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

Teen found guilty of murder in mother’s bludgeoning death

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Thursday, Jun. 23, 2022

In a courtroom crowded with family members, a Winnipeg teen was found guilty Wednesday night of bludgeoning his mother to death in her bed.

Jurors deliberated over 18 hours over two days before convicting the now 19-year-old man of second- degree murder late Thursday evening.

The 51-year-old victim was found dead in her bed March 26, 2019. Her son stood trial charged with first-degree murder.

Family members initially cheered in jubilation as the jury foreperson announced a finding of not guilty for first- degree murder, drowning out his announcement of a guilty verdict on the lesser charge. Family members’ joy quickly turned to tears and sobs as the guilty verdict was confirmed by the jury foreperson. The teen’s father held his head in his hand and cried as jury members were polled one by one to confirm their verdict.

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Thursday, Jun. 23, 2022

THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES/John Woods

Like mother, like son when it comes to manslaughter

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Like mother, like son when it comes to manslaughter

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 22, 2022

Less than a month after his mother was sentenced to prison for manslaughter, a Winnipeg man was in a Winnipeg courtroom Tuesday before the same judge to face punishment for the same charge.

Derrik Lawrence Edward Smith, 23, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for an unprovoked attack on 24-year-old Denzel Constant, on Oct. 12, 2020, that resulted in his death a day later from a catastrophic brain injury.

Court was told Constant and a friend were walking on Salter Street near Burrows Avenue around 8:30 p.m. when Smith and another man approached them and demanded Constant surrender his backpack. When he did, Smith struck Constant in the head with the backpack, causing him to fall to the ground and hit his head on the sidewalk.

Constant got to his feet, and with his friend walked to his apartment, a supportive housing unit operated by New Directions. After arriving home, Constant continued to be in significant pain and began suffering seizures, Crown attorney Bryton Moen told Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond.

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Wednesday, Jun. 22, 2022

DAVID LIPNOWSKI / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
Derrik Lawrence Edward Smith pleaded guilty to manslaughter for an unprovoked attack on Denzel Constant in 2020 that resulted in his death a day later from a brain injury.

Crown, defence clash in closing arguments for trial of teen accused of matricide

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Crown, defence clash in closing arguments for trial of teen accused of matricide

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Monday, Jun. 20, 2022

LAWYERS for a Winnipeg teen accused of beating his mother to death as she slept alleged Monday prosecutors are “twisting” ordinary events into evidence of his guilt where none exists.

“They don’t have evidence (the 19-year-old accused) committed the crime, so they have to say it is impossible for someone else to have done it,” defence lawyer Matt Gould argued in a closing address to jurors. “Of course, it’s not impossible. We aren’t even close to that here.”

The 51-year-old victim was found bludgeoned to death in her bed March 26, 2019. Her son is charged with first-degree murder.

The Free Press is not naming the victim, as it would identify the accused, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

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Monday, Jun. 20, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Jurors are expected to receive their final instructions from Queen’s Bench Justice Anne Turner and begin deliberations Wednesday.

House arrest for ex-Goldeye who assaulted ice-fisher

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

House arrest for ex-Goldeye who assaulted ice-fisher

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Jun. 17, 2022

A former draft pick of the Los Angeles Dodgers, who had a brief stint with the Winnipeg Goldeyes, has been sentenced to two years of house arrest after a traffic stop ended with police chasing him onto a frozen lake and seizing a sawed-off shotgun.

David Allan Parker, 39, pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited firearm, breaching a weapons prohibition order and assault in connection to his Jan. 1, 2020, arrest in Gimli.

Parker, who court was told struggled with drugs in the years after his baseball career slipped away, has shown “determination in staying sober,” stabilized his life and excelled at work since his arrest, said Queen’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche in a written ruling released earlier this month.

A three-year prison sentence is the accepted minimum sentence for offences involving firearms connected to criminal activity, Suche said. The Crown had recommended Suche sentence Parker to 42 months in prison.

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Friday, Jun. 17, 2022

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
David Parker during the Goldeyes tryout camp in 2005.

Man shot by police in highway chase has record of auto-theft offences

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man shot by police in highway chase has record of auto-theft offences

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Jun. 16, 2022

A 27-year-old man shot by RCMP after a highway chase outside Portage la Prairie once claimed it was his goal in life “to keep police busy as long as he was able to,” according to court records.

David Frank Burling was taken to hospital in stable condition after he was shot just east of Portage on the Trans-Canada Highway, sometime after 4 a.m. Wednesday.

Police allege Burling had stolen two all-terrain vehicles from Enns Brothers in Portage, and was fleeing in a pickup truck and trailer when he rammed an RCMP vehicle several times and attempted to run it off the road.

After the RCMP vehicle became pinned between the pickup truck and trailer, an officer got out of the vehicle. He then fired several shots at the pickup as it swerved toward him, according to police.

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Thursday, Jun. 16, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
A pickup and a trailer full of ATV’s sits in the middle of Saskatchewan Avenue East in Portage la Prairie Wednesday. David Frank Burling has been charged with attempted murder, assaulting a police officer with a weapon, flight from police, dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, possession of stolen property, and two counts of theft over $5,000.

Man sentenced to 10 years for fatal shooting

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man sentenced to 10 years for fatal shooting

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Jun. 16, 2022

A Selkirk man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison after fatally shooting a woman with a homemade gun during a drug dispute.

Landace Blair Urbanovitch, 26, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the July 4, 2021, killing of 22-year-old Levi Liske.

“While there may not be adequate evidence he intended the firearm to go off, Mr. Urbanovitch is nonetheless guilty of a serious manslaughter because he decided to produce a homemade firearm in the course of a serious argument,” Crown attorney Catherine Basarab told provincial court Judge Julie Frederickson, at a sentencing hearing in Selkirk last week.

Court was told Urbanovitch, his girlfriend and Liske had been staying in the same house July 4, when shortly before 5 a.m. they became embroiled in a heated argument over drugs and money. A second man in the house told police he awoke to the sound of smashing noises in the kitchen and saw Urbanovitch enter the living room “in an aggressive manner” holding a homemade gun, Basarab told court.

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Thursday, Jun. 16, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files

Defence grills slain woman’s co-worker

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Defence grills slain woman’s co-worker

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 15, 2022

Lawyers for a Winnipeg teen on trial accused of beating his mother to death turned their attention to a co-worker she had accused of sexually harassing her, suggesting he was responsible for the killing.

Jurors have heard the woman filed a complaint against the man in May 2018. She had accused him of “inappropriate behaviour” and “unwanted attention,” including crude remarks, an attempt to kiss her in an elevator and touching her breasts.

The man, who cannot be identified by name under terms of a court-ordered publication ban, denied touching the woman, but admitted to exchanging inappropriate “banter” with her.

The man said he was shocked when administrators notified him about the allegations, noting the woman had given him a chocolate just days earlier.

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Wednesday, Jun. 15, 2022

(John Woods / The Canadian Press files)

No parole application for seven years for 2019 slaying

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

No parole application for seven years for 2019 slaying

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Jun. 13, 2022

A Winnipeg man who was on parole for killing a man when he stabbed a stranger to death during a “relentless” meth-fuelled attack has been sentenced to life in prison.

Rodney Williams, 37, was convicted of manslaughter in the June 2019 death of 51-year-old Robert Donaldson.

Williams stood trial charged with second-degree murder, but Queen’s Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy found he was in the grip of a methamphetamine-induced psychosis at the time that left him unable to form the intent to kill.

“That does not negate the fact that Williams knowingly consumed drugs and alcohol, knowing that he had a violent past, and set out into the streets of Winnipeg with the knife,” McCarthy wrote in a 22-page decision released Monday. “Williams then committed a sustained, relentless and violent attack on an arbitrary victim and others tying to assist him.”

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Monday, Jun. 13, 2022

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Rodney Williams was convicted of manslaughter in the June 2019 death of 51-year-old Robert Donaldson (Pictured).

Man lacked intent to kill Good Samaritan, judge rules

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man lacked intent to kill Good Samaritan, judge rules

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Jun. 10, 2022

Jonathan Flett admits he hit a Good Samaritan nine times in the head with a hammer so forcefully that it became lodged in the victim’s skull, but a judge has ruled he had no intent to kill the man.

Flett, 20, stood trial last April for attempted murder in relation to a Sept. 1, 2020, attack that severely injured 27-year-old Zachary Fitzsimmons.

Flett, who is cognitively challenged and was impaired by alcohol at the time of the attack, had agreed at the start of trial to plead guilty to the lesser offence of aggravated assault — but the Crown didn’t accept the plea.

“The only issue at trial was whether Mr. Flett possessed the specific intent to end Mr. Fitzsimmons’s life,” Queen’s Bench Justice Theodor Bock wrote in a 16-page ruling Friday. “Despite the Crown’s very able submission, the evidence does not persuade me beyond a reasonable doubt of Mr. Flett’s guilt on the charge of attempted murder.”

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Friday, Jun. 10, 2022

Jonathan Flett admits he hit a Good Samaritan nine times in the head with a hammer so forcefully that it became lodged in the victim’s skull, but a judge has ruled he had no intent to kill the man.

Flett, 20, stood trial last April for attempted murder in relation to a Sept. 1, 2020, attack that severely injured 27-year-old Zachary Fitzsimmons.

Flett, who is cognitively challenged and was impaired by alcohol at the time of the attack, had agreed at the start of trial to plead guilty to the lesser offence of aggravated assault — but the Crown didn’t accept the plea.

“The only issue at trial was whether Mr. Flett possessed the specific intent to end Mr. Fitzsimmons’s life,” Queen’s Bench Justice Theodor Bock wrote in a 16-page ruling Friday. “Despite the Crown’s very able submission, the evidence does not persuade me beyond a reasonable doubt of Mr. Flett’s guilt on the charge of attempted murder.”

New trial after court quashes 2020 murder conviction

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

New trial after court quashes 2020 murder conviction

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Jun. 10, 2022

MANITOBA’S highest court has ordered a new trial for a man convicted of committing a premeditated killing when he was 16.

The now 21-year-old man was convicted in 2020 of first-degree murder in the January 2017 shooting death of 26-year-old Tyler Kirton and sentenced as an adult to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

In a written decision released this week, the Manitoba Court of Appeal quashed the man’s conviction, ruling the sentencing judge erred in admitting evidence obtained after police seized the teen’s cellphone — a seizure the appeal court said arose from a statement police obtained from him in violation of his Charter rights.

Court heard at trial the boy admitted ownership of the phone before he had been advised of his charter rights, including his right to a lawyer. Queen’s Bench Justice David Kroft found police violated the boy’s charter rights, but admitted his statement and the evidence found on his cellphone.

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Friday, Jun. 10, 2022

WAYNE GLOWACKI / FREE PRESS FILES

Police investigate the scene where Tyler Kirton was shot in the chest and left to die.

Five years for killing ‘kind-hearted’ senior

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Five years for killing ‘kind-hearted’ senior

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 8, 2022

When Matthew Hildebrand ran over 82-year-old George Birch with his tow truck, he robbed the world of a “kind-hearted man” who would “give the shirt off his back to anyone who wanted it.”

“I can’t say I forgive you, but I hope you have remorse for taking a life,” George’s son, Jeff Birch, wrote in a victim impact statement read at Hildebrand’s sentencing Wednesday. “I certainly hope with time you become a person who makes better choices in life.”

George Birch died June 15, 2021, after he interrupted Hildebrand and another man stealing property from his business, Jimmy Diesel Parts Company, on Logan Avenue.

Hildebrand, 23, was originally charged with manslaughter but pleaded guilty Wednesday to one count each of dangerous driving causing death, leaving the scene of an accident and theft. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

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Wednesday, Jun. 8, 2022

ALEX LUPUL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Police officers work the scene of a motor vehicle collision involving a pedestrian near the corner of Logan Avenue and Tecumseh Street in Winnipeg.

Mother beaten to death with ‘tremendous amount of force’

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Mother beaten to death with ‘tremendous amount of force’

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Jun. 8, 2022

A Winnipeg woman whose son is on trial charged with her murder was bludgeoned so forcefully in the head a pathologist likened her injuries to those suffered in a high-speed car crash.

“Those kinds of injuries could not be produced by simple punches or kicks,” chief medical examiner Dr. John Younes testified Tuesday.

The 51-year-old woman was found beaten to death in her bed on March 26, 2019, after her then 16-year-old son called 911 claiming he had returned to their Winnipeg home from running errands and discovered she had been the victim of an attack.

The Free Press is not naming the 51-year-old victim as it would identify the now 19-year-old accused, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

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Wednesday, Jun. 8, 2022

(John Woods / The Canadian Press files)

Mom relied heavily on accused killer son, murder trial told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Mom relied heavily on accused killer son, murder trial told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Jun. 7, 2022

Text messages provided to a jury Monday revealed new insights into the relationship between a teenage boy and his alleged murder victim — his mother.

Thousands of pages of text messages uncovered by police, excerpts of which were read in court Monday, show the woman was dependent on her son beginning when he was as young as 14.

The 51-year-old victim was found bludgeoned to death in her bedroom on March 26, 2019. The Free Press is not naming the 51-year-old victim as it would identify the now 19-year-old accused, who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Court has heard the woman had been off work for several months at the time of her death due to both physical injury and mental health issues.

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Tuesday, Jun. 7, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue.

No bail for Quebecer accused of defrauding local seniors

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

No bail for Quebecer accused of defrauding local seniors

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Saturday, May. 28, 2022

Police have arrested a 27-year-old Quebecer for her part in a telephone scam that cheated five Winnipeg seniors out of more than $50,000.

Jasmine Ryan was arrested May 8 and charged with more than two dozen fraud-related offences.

“Given the number of allegations and the pattern of the allegations… this is only the tip of the iceberg of what may be an organized-crime group carrying out significant financial crimes targeted at elderly and vulnerable victims,” prosecutor Larissa Campbell told provincial court Judge Rachel Rusen at a bail hearing last week.

Police allege a woman matching Ryan’s description used falsified identification to withdraw $5,000 from a Winnipeg TD Bank customer’s account last January. Subsequent attempts to withdraw money from customer accounts at other banks were denied after bank staff became suspicious that the woman could not remember the addresses on her identification or properly pronounce the names, Campbell said.

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Saturday, May. 28, 2022

Police have arrested a 27-year-old Quebecer for her part in a telephone scam that cheated five Winnipeg seniors out of more than $50,000.

Jasmine Ryan was arrested May 8 and charged with more than two dozen fraud-related offences.

“Given the number of allegations and the pattern of the allegations… this is only the tip of the iceberg of what may be an organized-crime group carrying out significant financial crimes targeted at elderly and vulnerable victims,” prosecutor Larissa Campbell told provincial court Judge Rachel Rusen at a bail hearing last week.

Police allege a woman matching Ryan’s description used falsified identification to withdraw $5,000 from a Winnipeg TD Bank customer’s account last January. Subsequent attempts to withdraw money from customer accounts at other banks were denied after bank staff became suspicious that the woman could not remember the addresses on her identification or properly pronounce the names, Campbell said.

Ten minutes of sheer road-rage terror

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Ten minutes of sheer road-rage terror

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, May. 26, 2022

A Winnipeg woman says her life has been forever changed by an act of road rage that a court heard was so dangerous it has virtually no precedent.

“This was no car accident,” Kiana Jobo said at a sentencing hearing Thursday for 59-year-old Dale Harper. “This was an intentional and terrorizing act of violence.”

Jobo, 27, said she feared she and her father, Jomar Jobo, were going to die. Harper had repeatedly rammed her vehicle during a 10-minute pursuit that ended when she fled to the RCMP detachment on Portage Avenue.

“I felt like one wrong turn and that’s it,” Jobo said during a lengthy, tear-filled address to the court. “The further and further I tried to go, the terror followed.”

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Thursday, May. 26, 2022

JESSE BOILY / FREE PRESS FILES
Kiana Jobo, who recently was the victim of a road rage incident where her car was repeatedly hit by a pickup truck, reflects on the incident in her home on Tuesday. Jobo said that she has trouble sleeping after the incident as it replays in her mind when she closes her eyes. Tuesday, Dec. 22, 2020. Reporter: Dean Pritchard

Killer pleads guilty in three-year-old daughter’s fatal stabbing

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Killer pleads guilty in three-year-old daughter’s fatal stabbing

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, May. 26, 2022

A Winnipeg man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the shocking stabbing death of his three-year-old daughter.

Frank Nausigimana, 29, entered his plea before Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey during a brief hearing Thursday morning.

Asked if he understood he was waiving his right to a trial, Nausigimana, through an American Sign Language interpreter, told McKelvey: “ Yes, I accept the punishment and I am following the law of God.”

“I’ve decided that I am going to pray,” Nausigimana said. “I admit I am guilty.”

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Thursday, May. 26, 2022

GOFUNDME
Three-year-old Jemimah Bundalian.

Woman gets 14 years for role in 2020 slaying

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Woman gets 14 years for role in 2020 slaying

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, May. 26, 2022

After fatally assaulting John Kirkwa for his bank card, his attackers dumped his body in a garbage bin and siphoned the remaining dollars from his bank account.

In court this week, Roberta Jessamine, 51, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for her part in the March 21, 2020, killing and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Jessamine and co-accused Selena Cross were arrested four days after the killing and one day after a Lansdowne Avenue resident discovered the 33-year-old victim’s body in her garbage bin.

Court was told Jessamine was angry that Kirkwa had allegedly not paid her for drugs she had purchased for him hours before his death.

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Thursday, May. 26, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Police on the scene in the back lane of the 200 block of Lansdowne Avenue in Winnipeg on March 26, 2020.

Youth carried out ‘elaborate… deliberate plan’ to kill mother and cover tracks, jurors told

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Youth carried out ‘elaborate… deliberate plan’ to kill mother and cover tracks, jurors told

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, May. 24, 2022

Minutes after arriving home and finding his mother beaten to death in her bed, the 16-year-old Winnipeg boy placed a frantic call to 911.

“My mom… something happened to her,” the sobbing teen told a 911 operator at 10:43 a.m., March 26, 2019.

“There’s blood all over,” he cried.

But that call, a recording of which was played for a jury Tuesday morning, was part of a calculated ruse to divert attention from himself, prosecutors alleged in an opening address at the now 19-year-old man’s first degree-murder trial.

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Tuesday, May. 24, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue.

‘Calculated and cunning’ harasser off to prison

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

‘Calculated and cunning’ harasser off to prison

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Friday, May. 20, 2022

Agnieszka Ciochon-Newton stalked and harassed her victims for years with a zeal seemingly ripped from the pages of a paperback thriller.

She was bent on destroying the lives of those she believed had done her wrong.

After the former St. Boniface General Hospital nurse was sentenced to six years in prison this week, one of her victims said she doesn’t know if she will ever feel safe again.

“I want to say it’s over, but it’s never going to be over,” said the woman after her tormentor was led out of court by a sheriff’s officer Thursday.

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Friday, May. 20, 2022

Agnieszka Ciochon-Newton, 54, pleaded guilty last year to criminal harassment, public mischief, obstruction of justice and other offences involving four victims. (Winnipeg Free press files)

Man accused of killing parents, attacking nurse, headed for trial

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Man accused of killing parents, attacking nurse, headed for trial

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Friday, May. 20, 2022

PROSECUTORS have filed a direct indictment against a Winnipeg man accused of murdering his parents and a violent assault on a nurse at a city hospital.

Trevor Farley, 37, appeared briefly in court Thursday via video from The Pas Correctional Centre.

Police arrested Farley at the jail under the new indictment on Wednesday, Crown attorney Mark Kantor told Queen’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche.

Under a direct indictment, the case will proceed straight to trial, without a preliminary hearing.

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Friday, May. 20, 2022

Trevor Farley, 37, is accused of murdering his parents and a violent assault on a nurse at a city hospital.

Grisly discovery leads to first-degree murder charge

Erik Pindera and Dean Pritchard 7 minute read Preview

Grisly discovery leads to first-degree murder charge

Erik Pindera and Dean Pritchard 7 minute read Friday, May. 20, 2022

A Winnipeg man has been charged with first-degree murder in the death of an Indigenous woman, after partial human remains were found in a North Kildonan dumpster — and police believe there could be more victims.

A source told the Free Press investigators had found a severed human head and leg in the bin near an apartment block at 253 Edison Ave.

On Monday, city police said they were investigating what was “believed to be a homicide” in the area between Henderson Highway and Roch Street, after a passerby spotted the remains and phoned law enforcement.

On Thursday, the Winnipeg Police Service publicly identified the remains as Rebecca Contois, 24, and announced an arrest in the case.

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Friday, May. 20, 2022

FACEBOOK Police have identified the victim as Rebecca Contois, 24.

Man who beat victim to death with bat given chance to change plea after Supreme Court ruling

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Man who beat victim to death with bat given chance to change plea after Supreme Court ruling

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, May. 18, 2022

The impact of a Supreme Court of Canada ruling — that the law barring the defence of extreme intoxication for some violent crimes is unconstitutional — is already being felt in Winnipeg courtrooms.

A scheduled manslaughter sentencing for Lucas Duck was adjourned on Monday after Queen’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg asked his lawyers if they wanted to reconsider his guilty plea in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

“I have reasons for the decision on sentencing I was prepared to deliver this morning, but I have to raise an issue I feel compelled to raise as a result of the trilogy of cases that came out in the Supreme Court in which the fact situations are similar to this case,” Greenberg said.

“Because of that, I have to ask whether that has any impact on the plea and whether the defence wants to consider whether they should be withdrawing the plea of guilty,” she said.

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Wednesday, May. 18, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue. 211104 - Thursday, November 04, 2021.

Crown asks for minimum 16 years without parole for 2019 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Crown asks for minimum 16 years without parole for 2019 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, May. 16, 2022

Cody Don Saunders went to Karen Letniak’s home looking for sex, but when his night didn’t end the way he wanted, he flew into a rage that ended in her death, a judge was told Monday.

Saunders, 27, was convicted of second-degree murder following a jury trial in December. Now, prosecutors are arguing his mandatory life sentence should come with no chance of parole for at least 16 years.

Saunders admitted he had strangled Letniak, but argued at trial he was in the grip of a cocaine-induced psychosis that removed his intent to kill.

Letniak was found dead and naked on the floor in the front entrance of her Riverton Avenue home Oct. 18, 2019.

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Monday, May. 16, 2022

FACEBOOK
Karen Letniak was found dead and naked on the floor in the front entrance of her Riverton Avenue home in 2019.

Witnessing stabbing death of husband led woman to take own life, family tells court

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Witnessing stabbing death of husband led woman to take own life, family tells court

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, May. 18, 2022

Alvin Nelson will never be charged in Vanessa Chartrand’s death, but just as surely as he killed her husband with a stab wound to the heart, he claimed her life, too, her grieving father told a Winnipeg court.

Thirty-year-old Russel Clarence Gibeault died March 12, 2021, after he was stabbed 14 times inside his Agnes Street home. Two months later, Chartrand, who cradled Gibeault in her arms as his life ebbed away, hanged herself under a basement stairwell.

Nelson, 35, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced earlier this month to 18 years in prison.

In a lengthy victim impact statement provided to court, Wally Chartrand gave voice to his family’s loss and his daughter’s overwhelming pain.

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Wednesday, May. 18, 2022

Vanessa Chartrand’s father, Wally Chartrand. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Crown quotes accused: ‘Rats deserve to die’

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Crown quotes accused: ‘Rats deserve to die’

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, May. 12, 2022

Jesse Gamblin attacked 28-year-old Norma Andrews with a baseball bat and a machete to teach her a fatal lesson about what happens to “rats,” a court heard Tuesday.

“It was a lesson that would begin in full view of others and end in Norma Andrews’s death,” Crown attorney Chantal Boutin told Queen’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser at the opening of Gamblin’s second-degree murder trial.

Andrews bled to death following a prolonged and brutal attack at a Balmoral Street rooming house on Sept. 21, 2019.

Court heard Andrews, known to her friends as Bambi, was asleep on a bed after a night of drinking and using drugs with several other people in the suite when, the Crown alleges, Gamblin, 22, returned around 9 a.m. and attacked her.

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Thursday, May. 12, 2022

SHANNON VANRAES / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
The Winnipeg Police Service investigates a homicide at a residence at 574 Balmoral Street in 2019.

Six months for man who fled fatal collision

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Six months for man who fled fatal collision

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, May. 11, 2022

An Ashern cattle farmer who didn’t stop to help following a highway collision in which a 30-year-old was killed has been sentenced to six months in jail.

Frankie Kehler, 45, was convicted after a trial last year on one count of failing to stop at the scene of an accident.

Adam Sinclair was struck down May 4, 2019, by a truck on Highway 6 near Ashern, after his own vehicle rolled into the ditch and he wandered back onto the road.

Kehler was not charged with impaired driving causing death because both the Crown and defence agreed even a sober driver would not have been able to avoid hitting Sinclair.

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Wednesday, May. 11, 2022

SUPPLIED
Adam Sinclair was struck down May 4, 2019, by a truck on Highway 6 near Ashern, after his own vehicle rolled into the ditch and he wandered back onto the road.

Springs Church fined $9,000 for breaching public health orders

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Springs Church fined $9,000 for breaching public health orders

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, May. 10, 2022

A Winnipeg church has been fined $9,000 after it admitted a much-criticized graduation ceremony held at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic violated a public health order banning indoor gatherings.

Springs Church pleaded guilty Monday to one count of violating the Public Health Act.

“By resolving it in this manner, the church has chosen not to advance a constitutional challenge with respect to the subject of public health orders” and the charter right to freedom of assembly, the church’s lawyer, Eric Wach, told provincial court Judge Stacy Cawley at a sentencing hearing Monday.

A representative of the church did not attend court or participate in the hearing remotely.

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Tuesday, May. 10, 2022

DANIEL CRUMP / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
The church was handed five fines of $5,000 each for holding drive-in services in November 2020.

Judge finds cop not guilty of assault, points to Crown’s decisions in ruling

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Judge finds cop not guilty of assault, points to Crown’s decisions in ruling

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Monday, May. 9, 2022

A Winnipeg police officer acquitted just two months ago of trying to cancel his own speeding ticket has now been found not guilty of assaulting a man following a wild highway chase.

Provincial court Judge Sidney Lerner found Patrol Sgt. Sean Cassidy not guilty Monday of one count of assault causing bodily harm, saying key prosecutorial decisions by the Crown left him with reasonable doubt as to his guilt.

Cassidy, who was joined in court by several supporters, hugged defence lawyer Hymie Weinstein following Lerner’s decision.

The alleged assault occurred March 28, 2017, during an early morning “high-risk” traffic stop on St. Mary’s Road.

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Monday, May. 9, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Provincial court Judge Sidney Lerner found Patrol Sgt. Sean Cassidy not guilty Monday of one count of assault causing bodily harm, saying key prosecutorial decisions by the Crown left him with reasonable doubt as to his guilt.

Judge rejected bid from Balaquit killer’s lawyer to take case away from jury

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Judge rejected bid from Balaquit killer’s lawyer to take case away from jury

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, May. 5, 2022

A week before a jury convicted him of manslaughter in the death of Eduardo Balaquit, lawyers for Kyle Pietz were urging a judge to rule there was no evidence to support a finding of guilt and take the case out of the jury’s hands.

Jurors deliberated less than one full day before reaching the guilty verdict early Wednesday evening in a case distinguished by the fact Balaquit’s body hasn’t been found.

In a directed-verdict motion heard in the absence of the jury on April 28, defence lawyer Amanda Sansregret argued “a properly instructed jury” did not have enough evidence before it to reach a guilty verdict in the case.

Balaquit, 59, disappeared on June 4, 2018, after leaving home for Westcon Equipment and Rentals on Keewatin Street, where he had a contract as a cleaner.

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Thursday, May. 5, 2022

WINNIPEG POLICE SERVICE HANDOUTEduardo Balaquit disappeared June 5th, 2018.

Widow cries out as jury finds man guilty in Balaquit’s death

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Widow cries out as jury finds man guilty in Balaquit’s death

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, May. 4, 2022

A jury has convicted Kyle Pietz of manslaughter in the death of office cleaner Eduardo Balaquit, accepting the Crown’s theory he killed Balaquit after forcing him to disclose his bank card numbers.

Seated with her sons and other family members, Balaquit’s wife Illuminada clutched a wooden crucifix and cried out as the verdict was announced.

Jurors delivered their verdict just before 8 p.m. Wednesday following six hours of deliberations.

Pietz showed no visible reaction.

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Wednesday, May. 4, 2022

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Edward Balaquit, son of Eduardo Balaquit, speaks to press outside Manitoba Courts on Wednesday.

‘Trail of death and of debits’: closing arguments made in Balaquit homicide case

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

‘Trail of death and of debits’: closing arguments made in Balaquit homicide case

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, May. 3, 2022

Exactly where Eduardo Balaquit’s body is or how he died remains a mystery, but there is no doubt it was Kyle Pietz who killed him, the Crown told jurors Tuesday in a Winnipeg courtroom.

Balaquit, 59, disappeared June 4, 2018, after leaving home for Westcon Equipment and Rentals on Keewatin Street, where he had a contract as a cleaner.

Kyle Pietz, 36, a former employee at Westcon, is on trial for manslaughter.

Prosecutors allege Pietz killed Balaquit during a robbery after forcing him to disclose his bank card numbers.

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Tuesday, May. 3, 2022

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Local - Pietz Kyle Pietz leaves the Law Courts Building on Monday afternoon after the first day of trial in his alleged killing of Eduardo Balaquit, whose disappearance prompted massive manhunt. See Dean Pritchard’s story. April 4th, 2022

Court hears challenge to Manitoba personal cannabis growth ban

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Court hears challenge to Manitoba personal cannabis growth ban

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, May. 3, 2022

MANITOBA’S ban on homegrown weed is undermining the federal government’s goal when it legalized marijuana in the first place, say lawyers for a local pot advocate fighting the prohibition.

The Manitoba government has “done exactly the opposite of what the federal government thought was the right thing to do,” Kirk Tousaw, a lawyer for TobaGrown founder Jesse Lavoie, said outside court Monday, following a full day of arguments before Queen’s Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy.

“What they are actually doing is supporting and fostering the black market.”

Canada’s Cannabis Act allows adults to cultivate up to four cannabis plants per household for recreational use. Manitoba and Quebec have banned homegrown recreational weed.

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Tuesday, May. 3, 2022

JESSE BOILY / FREE PRESS FILES Jesse Lavoie anticipates being in the legal battle for quite some time.

Duress to play key role in murder trial

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Duress to play key role in murder trial

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, May. 3, 2022

A Winnipeg woman charged in the murder of man whose charred remains were found in Portage la Prairie after he was tortured and held captive for several days is expected to claim she was acting under duress, a judge was told Monday.

Chelsea O’Hanley, 26, is on trial charged with first-degree murder, indignity to human remains and accessory to murder after the fact.

Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe, 27, was killed in a Winnipeg home in June 2020, before his body was burned and partially buried on the edge of a field.

In March, 31-year-old Kyle Evan Sinkovits and 27-year-old Jonathan Narvey pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, while co-accused Bobbi Lynn Hall, 28, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact. They are still awaiting sentencing.

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Tuesday, May. 3, 2022

Ruth Bonneville
Police investigate at the scene of the homicide on Alfred Avenue. (Ruth Bonneville / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Couple headed to prison for sex acts with boys, dogs

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Couple headed to prison for sex acts with boys, dogs

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Apr. 29, 2022

A Manitoba couple has been sentenced to four years in prison after admitting they recorded sex acts with two teenage boys, and in separate incidents, animals.

“We are truly embarrassed of our actions that resulted in us being here today,” 61-year-old Donna Woodward told Queen’s Bench Justice Elliot Levin at a sentencing hearing Friday. “We truly hope we have not created any future trauma and issues for the victims.”

Woodward and her husband, Charles Woodward, 63, pleaded guilty to two counts of making child pornography and one count of bestiality.

Police arrested the couple in November 2018 after one of the then-15-year-old boys disclosed an incident to his father.

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Friday, Apr. 29, 2022

Donna Woodward and her husband Charles Woodward pleaded guilty to two counts of making child pornography and one count of bestiality. (Daniel Crump / Bloomberg Media files)

Creditors had sought accused in days before Balaquit slaying, police testify

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Creditors had sought accused in days before Balaquit slaying, police testify

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 27, 2022

For more than 20 years, cleaning the offices at Westcon Equipment and Rentals was part of Eduardo Balaquit’s nightly routine.

At 6:05 p.m., June 4, 2018, the man, as he had done countless times before, entered his alarm code, disarming the Keewatin Street business’s security system.

That act marked the last time Balaquit was known to be alive, Winnipeg Police Service Sgt. Paul Barber told jurors Wednesday.

Checks with the Canadian Border Services Agency and Canadian Air Traffic Security Authority confirmed Balaquit did not travel across the border or by air since then, Barber testified. Similar checks with Manitoba Health and Canadian Police Information Centre databases showed no evidence of involvement with Balaquit.

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Wednesday, Apr. 27, 2022

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Kyle Pietz, a former employee at Westcon, is on trial for manslaughter. Prosecutors allege Pietz, 36, killed Eduardo Balaquit, 59, during a robbery and forced him to disclose his bank card numbers.

Accused in Balaquit slaying had victim’s bank info, police testify

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Accused in Balaquit slaying had victim’s bank info, police testify

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 26, 2022

Eduardo Balaquit’s bank card numbers were located on a sticky note in the home of the man now on trial for killing him, jurors heard Tuesday.

Winnipeg police found the paper stuck on the bottom of a 7-Eleven bag in a fridge while searching Kyle Pietz’s Toronto Street home on June 6, 2018, identification unit Const. Susan Desender told jurors.

On it were written two sets of numbers and the words CIBC and Visa, Desender said.

Balaquit’s wife, Iluminada Balaquit, confirmed the bank card numbers during testimony earlier this month.

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Tuesday, Apr. 26, 2022

Court exhibit photo of man alleged to be Kyle Pietz going into 7-11 where $700 was withdrawn from ATM using Eduardo Balaquit’s bank cards.

Accused killer drowning in debt, court told

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Accused killer drowning in debt, court told

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 26, 2022

Financial records show a man accused of killing Eduardo Balaquit during the course of a robbery was drowning in debt and had defaulted on several loans, jurors heard Monday.

“Determining someone’s financial status can lead to a motive for a crime,” Winnipeg Police Service Sgt. Michael Macdonald told jurors.

Balaquit, 59, disappeared June 4, 2018 after leaving home for Westcon Equipment and Rentals on Keewatin Street, where he had a contract as a cleaner. His body has never been found.

Thirty-six-year-old Kyle Pietz, a former employee at Westcon, is on trial for manslaughter. Prosecutors allege Pietz killed Balaquit during a robbery and forced him to disclose his bank card numbers.

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Tuesday, Apr. 26, 2022

Thirty-six-year-old Kyle Pietz, a former employee at Westcon, is on trial for manslaughter. Prosecutors allege Pietz killed Balaquit during a robbery and forced him to disclose his bank card numbers.

Garden biz on hook for illegal composting

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Garden biz on hook for illegal composting

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Saturday, Apr. 23, 2022

A garden supply business has been ordered to pay $55,000 in fines and court costs after it flouted a court order to stop composting activities on its property.

The ruling is the latest legal fallout in a long-standing — and sometimes violent — dispute between Samborski Garden Supplies Ltd. and the Rural Municipality of Macdonald.

In January 2020, Samborski Garden Supplies Ltd. (Samborski Environmental) and director Leonard Samborski were found guilty of contempt for ignoring a 2016 interim injunction that prohibited them from continuing composting operations on property south of the Perimeter Highway, west of Winnipeg’s Brady Road landfill.

“Despite efforts by the RM on several fronts, the injunction did not cause Samborski Environmental to stop dumping material on the property,” Queen’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche wrote in a recently released ruling. “It simply carried on as it had been doing.”

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Saturday, Apr. 23, 2022

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
In January 2020, Samborski was found guilty of contempt for ignoring an interim injunction that prohibited them from continuing composting operations on property west of Brady Road landfill.

Nygard challenging extradition order to U.S.

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Nygard challenging extradition order to U.S.

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Apr. 21, 2022

Disgraced fashion mogul Peter Nygard is fighting an order by the federal justice minister that he be extradited to the U.S. to face sex charges.

In a notice of application filed Wednesday in the Manitoba Court of Appeal, Nygard is seeking to quash a March 22 order by federal Justice Minister David Lametti authorizing his extradition to the U.S. once a criminal case against him in Toronto has concluded.

Nygard, 80, has been held in custody since December 2020 when he was arrested in Winnipeg under the Extradition Act after being charged with nine sex-related offences in New York.

Last September, Toronto police charged Nygard with six counts of sexual assault and three counts of forcible confinement for offences against women alleged to have occurred between October 1987 and March 2006.

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Thursday, Apr. 21, 2022

ALEXANDRA NEWBOULD / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been held in custody since December 2020 when he was arrested in Winnipeg under the Extradition Act after being charged with nine sex-related offences in New York.

Judge urged to deliver life sentence to two-time killer

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Judge urged to deliver life sentence to two-time killer

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Apr. 21, 2022

CONVICTED for the second time of stabbing a man to death, Rodney Williams should go to prison for life, with no chance of parole for 10 years, a judge was told Wednesday.

“The fact that Mr. Williams has killed twice cannot be ignored,” Crown attorney Chantal Boutin told Justice Shauna McCarthy. “This is an integral part of the circumstances you must weigh and consider.”

McCarthy convicted Williams of manslaughter in the June 2019 death of 51-year-old Robert Donaldson after a trial last spring.

Williams stood trial for second-degree murder, but McCarthy convicted him of the lesser charge, ruling he was too intoxicated by methamphetamine to form the intent to kill.

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Thursday, Apr. 21, 2022

SASHA SEFTER / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Police tape is seen in the garbage on June 9, 2019, near the intersection of Sara Avenue and Sherbrook Street, where Robert Donaldson died.

Detective testifies about accused’s reaction during arrest

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Detective testifies about accused’s reaction during arrest

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 20, 2022

Arrested by homicide detectives a day after Eduardo Balaquit was reported missing, Kyle Pietz expressed surprise it was believed he had been murdered, jurors heard Wednesday.

“Is Eddie dead?” Winnipeg Police Service Sgt. John Taylor quoted Pietz as saying as he was handcuffed and advised of his rights outside his Toronto Street home on June 5, 2018.

Balaquit, 59, disappeared June 4, after leaving home for Westcon Equipment and Rentals on Keewatin Street, where he had a long-standing contract as a cleaner. His body has never been found.

Pietz, a former employee at Westcon, is on trial for manslaughter. Prosecutors allege Pietz killed Balaquit during a robbery.

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Wednesday, Apr. 20, 2022

Kyle Pietz, a former employee at Westcon, is on trial for manslaughter. Prosecutors allege Pietz killed Balaquit during a robbery.

Thief tells manslaughter trial he broke into van, stole wallet on night Balaquit went missing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Thief tells manslaughter trial he broke into van, stole wallet on night Balaquit went missing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 19, 2022

Hours after Eduardo Balaquit was last seen alive, Lesley Walker was attempting to use one of the dead man’s credit cards at several inner-city convenience stores, a Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench jury heard Tuesday.

Walker told jurors he and another man were looking for scrap metal to steal and resell the night of June 4, 2018, when they opened an unlocked van outside City Wide Water Heater Service on Keewatin Street and grabbed several lengths of copper pipe and brass fittings.

A short time later in the same area, they came across a van that jurors have heard belonged to Balaquit.

Walker said he broke the front passenger-door window and grabbed a wallet with a driver’s licence and credit cards.

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Tuesday, Apr. 19, 2022

HO / THE CANADIAN PRESS - Winnipeg Police Service
Eduardo Balaquit, 59, disappeared June 4, 2018, after leaving home for Westcon Equipment and Rentals on Keewatin Street, where he had a long-standing contract as a cleaner. His body has never been found.

Lawyer guilty of professional misconduct can return to work under supervision

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Lawyer guilty of professional misconduct can return to work under supervision

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 19, 2022

A Brandon defence lawyer barred from communicating in his off hours with women in the justice system will be allowed to return to work under supervision, a Law Society of Manitoba disciplinary panel has ruled.

Ryan Fawcett pleaded guilty to one count each of professional misconduct and conduct unbecoming of a lawyer, offences under the Legal Profession Act.

Fawcett, 46, admitted to repeatedly texting five women “unwanted communications of a sexual nature” between 2016 and 2020.

Fawcett, speaking to a law society disciplinary panel last week, apologized to his victims and colleagues, saying his actions brought shame to his profession and himself.

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Tuesday, Apr. 19, 2022

The Brandon courthouse. (file)

Man who left body fluid on children’s clothes spared from record

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man who left body fluid on children’s clothes spared from record

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Saturday, Apr. 16, 2022

A former Asper School of Business student who left his semen on the clothing of three young children in a gym locker room has, on appeal, been granted a conditional discharge, sparing him a criminal record.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Jeffrey Harris ruled the original sentencing judge erred by focusing on the effect of the offence on society. “In my opinion, it is in the public interest that the accused be given every opportunity to become a useful and contributing member of the community to its fullest potential,” Harris said in the ruling.

The now 25-year-old man, identified in court documents only by the initials C.B., pleaded guilty last July to three counts of mischief and was sentenced to 15 months of supervised probation.

Court was told that on three occasions in early 2019, the man entered the community locker room at the Frank Kennedy Active Living Centre at the University of Manitoba, where he removed the clothing of young girls from their lockers and “deposited his semen” on the garments before returning them to their lockers.

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Saturday, Apr. 16, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS files
C.B. was a student at the University of Manitoba when he entered the community locker room at the Frank Kennedy Active Living Centre and deposited semen on children’s clothing.

Former Winnipeg CAO ordered to pay $327K to city in police HQ case

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Former Winnipeg CAO ordered to pay $327K to city in police HQ case

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Apr. 14, 2022

A judge has ruled the $327,000 former city chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl accepted as a bribe connected to construction of the downtown police headquarters be repaid to the City of Winnipeg.

Last month, Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal ruled in favour of the city’s claim Sheegl accepted a bribe from Armik Babakhanians, owner of Caspian Construction.

Joyal said Sheegl could not be allowed to keep the money, but the question remained who should get it.

After further submissions from lawyers for Sheegl and the city, Joyal, in a decision released Wednesday, ruled the money rightfully belonged to the city.

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Thursday, Apr. 14, 2022

JOE BRYKSA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said Phil Sheegl could not be allowed to keep the money, but the question remained who should get it.

Serial harasser deserves credit for pleading guilty: defence

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Preview

Serial harasser deserves credit for pleading guilty: defence

Dean Pritchard 6 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2022

A lawyer for a Winnipeg woman — whose years-long campaigns of harassment left her two victims living in fear she would destroy their lives — has urged a judge to sentence her to just under four years in custody.

The sentence would give credit to Agnieszka Ciochon-Newton for accepting responsibility for her crimes; and it would spare the court the expense of a lengthy and complex trial, defence lawyer Barry Walker told provincial court Judge Keith Eyrikson at a sentencing hearing Wednesday.

“Substantial weight can be put on her guilty plea and the resources she saved,” Walker said. “The facts of this case are very aggravating — the defence will concede that — … (but) she is not disentitled to leniency.”

The Crown has recommended she serve eight years in prison.

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Wednesday, Apr. 13, 2022

(Winnipeg Free Press files)
Ciochon-Newton, a 53-year-old former nurse, has pleaded guilty to criminal harassment, public mischief, obstruction of justice and other offences involving four victims.

Balaquit homicide trial delayed in advance of storm

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Balaquit homicide trial delayed in advance of storm

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 12, 2022

Jurors were back in court Tuesday, hearing evidence in the trial of a man accused of killing Eduardo Balaquit, six days after a judge ordered a temporary suspension of proceedings due to two positive COVID-19 test results among the jury.

They didn’t get a chance to get too comfortable.

With Winnipeg bracing for an epic spring blizzard, Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond told jurors the trial would be taking another break, with testimony set to resume April 19.

“That’s in the interest of everybody’s safety,” Bond told jurors before the lunch break. “It’s not reasonable for us… given what we’re being told is coming, to expect that you will all be able to arrive here safely.”

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Tuesday, Apr. 12, 2022

Eduardo Balaquit disappeared June 5th, 2018. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO

Life-altering hammer attack not attempt to kill, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Life-altering hammer attack not attempt to kill, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 12, 2022

JONATHAN Flett admits beating a Good Samaritan on the head with a hammer but had no intention of killing him, a judge was told Monday.

Flett, 20, is on trial charged with attempted murder for a Sept. 1, 2020, attack that sent 27-year-old Zachary Fitzsimmons to hospital with life-altering injuries.

Flett lashed out at Fitzsimmons, mistakenly believing he had hit Flett first, and in his own words “wasn’t trying to kill that guy,” defence lawyer Scott Newman told Queen’s Bench Justice Theodor Bock in a closing argument.

Flett has admitted he is guilty of the lesser charge of aggravated assault.

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Tuesday, Apr. 12, 2022

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Cold Beer Warehouse on Maryland.

Ex-RCMP officer sentenced to two years for cocaine possession

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Ex-RCMP officer sentenced to two years for cocaine possession

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, Apr. 11, 2022

Nearly four years after he was charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, one-time RCMP officer Wayne Shuttleworth lost his last bid to delay going into custody.

On Monday, a judge rejected Shuttleworth’s motion to adjourn sentencing so he could hire a new lawyer, and sentenced him to two years in prison.

“I am concerned what I have heard this morning is another attempt on Mr. Shuttleworth’s part to try and delay this matter further,” said Queen’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond.

Shuttleworth, who had already changed lawyers two times since his arrest in May 2018, told court he had “issues” with his current lawyer, Jonathan Pinx, and his decision not to request the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

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Monday, Apr. 11, 2022

Nearly four years after he was charged with possession of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking, one-time RCMP officer Wayne Shuttleworth lost his last bid to delay going into custody.

On Monday, a judge rejected Shuttleworth’s motion to adjourn sentencing so he could hire a new lawyer, and sentenced him to two years in prison.

“I am concerned what I have heard this morning is another attempt on Mr. Shuttleworth’s part to try and delay this matter further,” said Queen’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond.

Shuttleworth, who had already changed lawyers two times since his arrest in May 2018, told court he had “issues” with his current lawyer, Jonathan Pinx, and his decision not to request the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Sex offender’s disabilities impact sentence

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Sex offender’s disabilities impact sentence

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Apr. 8, 2022

A deaf Winnipeg man with intellectual disabilities convicted of having a sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl has been sentenced to just 90 days in custody after a judge ruled counselling services in jail are inadequate to deal with his disability.

The man’s crime demanded jail time, but anything longer than 90 days would not address “the unique circumstances of this case,” provincial court Judge Tim Killeen said at a recent sentencing hearing for 25-year-old Cody James Remillard.

“I don’t suggest that someone should not be incarcerated because they are deaf, but the length of the incarceration must include the circumstances of the individual,” Killeen said.

After recommending a jail sentence of 18 months, the Crown has filed an appeal, arguing Killeen’s sentence is “demonstrably unfit” and did not adequately take into account Remillard’s moral blameworthiness.

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Friday, Apr. 8, 2022

A hearing is being held to try to persuade courts to allow Canadians with disabilities to stack their provincial and federal assistance payments instead of clawing them back. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Man acquitted of assaulting police after ‘significant concerns’ in officer testimony

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man acquitted of assaulting police after ‘significant concerns’ in officer testimony

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Apr. 8, 2022

A Winnipeg man who says police repeatedly shocked him with a Taser without cause has been acquitted of assaulting two officers, after a judge ruled “inconsistencies” in their testimony and “less than satisfactory answers” left him in doubt of his guilt.

Shaun Anobis, 38, stood trial earlier this year on two counts of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.

“This is a case where there are some issues with Sean Anobis’s evidence, so I cannot simply accept his denial of any assault,” provincial court Judge Robert Heinrichs said Tuesday. “However… there are more significant concerns with the evidence of police officers in this case.”

Court heard evidence at trial the Winnipeg Police Service responded to a report of a man brandishing a BB gun in the area of a Maryland Street rooming house June 8, 2020, at the same time Anobis was walking out of the house.

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Friday, Apr. 8, 2022

A Winnipeg man who says police repeatedly shocked him with a Taser without cause has been acquitted of assaulting two officers. (John Woods / The Canadian Press files)

Cross Lake woman to spend minimum 12 years in prison for grandmother’s ‘reprehensible’ murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Cross Lake woman to spend minimum 12 years in prison for grandmother’s ‘reprehensible’ murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Apr. 7, 2022

A Cross Lake woman who beat her 93-year-old grandmother and then left her to die as she set her house on fire has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

Leona Rosa Blacksmith, 40, was convicted of second-degree murder following a trial last year.

Edith Blacksmith died Aug. 9, 2019, after police, searching for Leona Blacksmith in connection to an unrelated assault on a different person a day earlier, pulled the senior from her burning home at Pimicikamak Cree Nation, more than 500 air kilometres north of Winnipeg.

A pathologist found Edith Blacksmith suffered blunt-force injuries to her head and body, as well as an intentionally inflicted burn wound to her left thigh, but died as the result of smoke inhalation.

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Thursday, Apr. 7, 2022

A Cross Lake woman who beat her 93-year-old grandmother and then left her to die as she set her house on fire has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

Leona Rosa Blacksmith, 40, was convicted of second-degree murder following a trial last year.

Edith Blacksmith died Aug. 9, 2019, after police, searching for Leona Blacksmith in connection to an unrelated assault on a different person a day earlier, pulled the senior from her burning home at Pimicikamak Cree Nation, more than 500 air kilometres north of Winnipeg.

A pathologist found Edith Blacksmith suffered blunt-force injuries to her head and body, as well as an intentionally inflicted burn wound to her left thigh, but died as the result of smoke inhalation.

Nine years for unprovoked fatal stabbing on city bus

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Nine years for unprovoked fatal stabbing on city bus

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Apr. 7, 2022

A Winnipeg man who stabbed and killed a 57-year-old stranger on a city bus in an alcohol-fuelled attack has been sentenced to nine years in prison.

Justin James, 48, had pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the slaying of Raymond Hill on May 24, 2020.

“This was a violent, unprovoked attack,” provincial court Judge Murray Thompson said Thursday. “This was near murder, but for the accused’s self-induced intoxication.”

Court was told Hill and James got on the bus outside Portage Place mall around 3 p.m. James, who was drinking from a king can of beer, sat down at the front of the bus and Hill took a seat near the back.

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Thursday, Apr. 7, 2022

Justin James, 48, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the slaying of Raymond Hill on May 24, 2020. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Judge sends German citizen to prison in ‘extraordinarily tragic’ Manitoba hunting death

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Judge sends German citizen to prison in ‘extraordinarily tragic’ Manitoba hunting death

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022

German citizen Carsten Aust visited Canada to raise awareness and funds for a Philippine children’s charity, but his noble mission took a tragic turn after an ill-fated decision to join his new friends hunting for a bear ended in the death of a 59-year-old Rosengart man.

“In his wildest dreams, he never imagined he would be in a courtroom facing any charge of any kind,” his lawyer Jeff Gindin told court Wednesday. “It’s a terrible tragedy.”

A Facebook page for Vision Help International Care Foundation (Philippines) identifies Carsten and Mercy Aust as the charity’s founders.

Oleg Unruh died Oct. 5 after he was shot returning to his vehicle following a day hunting for deer in a wooded area near Elma, about 90 kilometres east of Winnipeg.

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Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022

FACEBOOK PHOTO
Carsten Aust pleaded guilty to careless use of a firearm and using a firearm in the commission of an indictable offence and was sentenced to two years in prison.

More jurors test positive for COVID, manslaughter trial on hold until next week

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

More jurors test positive for COVID, manslaughter trial on hold until next week

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022

The trial of a man charged with manslaughter in the killing of Eduardo Balaquit has been put on hold for five days after two more jurors tested positive for COVID-19 Wednesday morning.

“They have not been discharged, they have just been asked to go home,” Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond told the remaining jurors. “We are not going to proceed with the trial today in these circumstances.”

The development reduces the number of jurors on the jury to 11, down from 14 on Monday, the opening day of the trial. One juror was replaced by an alternate on Monday, after one juror reported he had tested positive for the virus. On Tuesday, another juror tested positive and was discharged. The remaining 13 jurors were provided with rapid tests, all tested negative and the trial resumed.

Jurors have been told to return to court Tuesday, at which time they will all be provided with rapid tests.

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Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022

Kyle Pietz is accused of killing Eduardo Balaquit during a course of a robbery. (Winnipeg Free Press files)

Accused in Balaquit slaying placed at scene, court told

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Accused in Balaquit slaying placed at scene, court told

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Apr. 5, 2022

A former co-worker placed Kyle Pietz at the scene where prosecutors allege he robbed and killed Eduardo Balaquit one day later, a jury has heard.

Balaquit, 59, disappeared June 4, 2018, after leaving home for Westcon Equipment and Rentals on Keewatin Street, where he had a long-standing contract as a cleaner. His body has never been found.

Pietz, 36, is on trial for manslaughter.

Derek Barron testified he and Pietz had worked together in Westcon’s parts department for a couple of months before Pietz quit in the spring of 2018. Prosecutors allege Pietz stole $1,700 from a petty cash box that April and quit a month later.

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Tuesday, Apr. 5, 2022

Eduardo Balaquit was last seen in 2018. His body has never been found. (Winnipeg Police Service handout)

Accused killer ‘driven by desperation,’ court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Accused killer ‘driven by desperation,’ court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Apr. 4, 2022

NEARLY four years after Eduardo Balaquit was last seen alive, the location of his body remains a mystery — but there is no question why he was killed, a jury was told Monday.

“This is a case of a man driven by desperation and the desperate measures he took on June 4, 2018, that cost Eduardo Balaquit his life,” prosecutor Vanessa Gama told jurors in an opening address outlining the Crown’s case against Kyle Pietz.

Pietz, 36, is on trial for manslaughter.

Prosecutors allege Pietz killed 59-year-old Balaquit while robbing him of his debit card and forcing him to disclose his PIN.

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Monday, Apr. 4, 2022

Kyle Pietz leaves the Law Courts Building on Monday afternoon after the first day of his trial. (Winnipeg Free Press)

Hammer attack leaves Good Samaritan with lifelong injuries

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Hammer attack leaves Good Samaritan with lifelong injuries

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Mar. 31, 2022

A Good Samaritan beaten in the head with a hammer after he intervened in the bullying of a teenage boy now lives with a steel plate in his head and has lost his sense of taste and smell, a trial has heard.

Zachary Fitzsimmons spent three weeks in hospital after he was attacked by a group of men outside of the Maryland Hotel on Sept. 1, 2020.

Twenty-year-old Jonathan Malachai Flett, the man who wielded the hammer, has pleaded not guilty to attempted murder, but admits he is guilty of aggravated assault.

Fitzsimmons, 27, testified he had been “hanging out” and drinking with his fiancé and friends when they drove to the Maryland Hotel to pick up more beer before going home.

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Thursday, Mar. 31, 2022

JESSICA LEE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Zachary Fitzsimmons spent three weeks in hospital after he was attacked by a group of men outside of the Cold Beer Warehouse on Maryland two years ago.

Accused sex offender guilty of past indecent acts

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Accused sex offender guilty of past indecent acts

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Thursday, Mar. 31, 2022

A Lundar man arrested recently for historical sex crimes against children was convicted 20 years ago of sexual offences involving three boys, court records show.

Joseph Floyd Delaney, 65, was arrested in February and charged with seven sexual assault-related offences involving three children, alleged to have occurred in the mid-1980s to early 1990s.

Court records show Delaney pleaded guilty in September 2000 to three counts of committing an indecent act involving three boys under the age of 14 between January 1998 and March 2000.

“The accused would masturbate in front of (one of the victims) and the others on several occasions during that period of time,” Crown attorney George De Moissac told provincial court Judge Ted Lismer at Delaney’s September 2000 sentencing hearing.

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Thursday, Mar. 31, 2022

Court records show Delaney pleaded guilty in September 2000 to three counts of committing an indecent act involving three boys under the age of 14 between January 1998 and March 2000. (Facebook)

Man sentenced for vicious assault on gang underling

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Man sentenced for vicious assault on gang underling

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Mar. 31, 2022

A Winnipeg man who recorded his “hideous” attack on a gang underling and posted the video on Facebook, has been sentenced to three years in custody in a case a judge said highlights the lack of rehabilitative resources for Indigenous offenders.

Brandon Sumner, 23, pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault for the April 2020 attack. Provincial court Judge Cynthia Devine sentenced Sumner to an additional one year in custody for an unrelated attack on a stranger 18 days earlier.

“This case was particularly difficult to decide because the particular type of secure residential facilities and resources that are designed to heal young Indigenous offenders who are also struggling with (fetal alcohol spectrum disorder), addictions, the intergenerational trauma leading to violence and joining gangs, do not exist,” Devine said in a written decision released this week.

“Specialized resources… to address intergenerational traumas caused by colonialism and residential schools are required in this case to protect society and rehabilitate Mr. Sumner,” Devine said.

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Thursday, Mar. 31, 2022

A Winnipeg man who recorded posted a video of himself attacking a fellow gang member has been sentenced to three years in custody. (Daniel Crump / Bloomberg Media files)

No parole for 10 years for man who killed girlfriend

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

No parole for 10 years for man who killed girlfriend

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Apr. 1, 2022

A Winnipeg man who stabbed his girlfriend to death while bound by a court order to have no contact with her has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

Brandon Carl Starnyski, 47, was set to stand trial last week but instead agreed to plead guilty to second-degree murder in the May 2020 killing of 46-year-old Marie Monin.

Ten years is the minimum period of parole ineligibility available for offenders convicted of second-degree murder.

Court was told Starnyski’s guilty plea was a result of a plea bargain that recognized he could have argued at trial he was intoxicated when he stabbed Monin and did not intend to kill her. It would have opened the door to a conviction to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

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Friday, Apr. 1, 2022

MIKE SUDOMA / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
A neighbour looks out of her window as police investigate the murder of 46-year-old Marie Monin at a Redwood Ave apartment block in 2020.

Man pleads guilty to viciously killing mom

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man pleads guilty to viciously killing mom

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, Mar. 28, 2022

A Manitoba man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for bludgeoning his mother, claiming he “snapped” after she told him she wished he were dead.

The mandatory sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison. Lawyers for the Crown and defence have jointly recommended Kelton Wood be able to apply for parole after serving 10 years in custody, the minimum term allowed under the Criminal Code.

Charlotte Wood, 35, died Sept. 24, 2020, as the result of blunt force trauma to the head. She was stabbed 70 times all over her body and had several burn injuries to her arm, back and thigh.

Kelton Wood, 18 at the time of the killing, will return to court for sentencing in June following the completion of reports looking into his background and prospects for rehabilitation.

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Monday, Mar. 28, 2022

A Manitoba man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for bludgeoning his mother, claiming he “snapped” after she told him she wished he were dead.

The mandatory sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison. Lawyers for the Crown and defence have jointly recommended Kelton Wood be able to apply for parole after serving 10 years in custody, the minimum term allowed under the Criminal Code.

Charlotte Wood, 35, died Sept. 24, 2020, as the result of blunt force trauma to the head. She was stabbed 70 times all over her body and had several burn injuries to her arm, back and thigh.

Kelton Wood, 18 at the time of the killing, will return to court for sentencing in June following the completion of reports looking into his background and prospects for rehabilitation.

Psychiatrist shortage leaves court-ordered mental health assessments to languish

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Psychiatrist shortage leaves court-ordered mental health assessments to languish

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Sunday, Mar. 20, 2022

Long wait times for psychiatric assessments to determine criminal responsibility are continuing to bog down criminal court cases.

Defence lawyers say it’s further hobbling the justice system as it struggles to deal with pandemic-related delays.

“As of February, there were continuing to be delays, particularly with respect to not criminally responsible assessments,” said Lisa LaBossiere, who is on the executive of the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association of Manitoba. “I can tell you of cases that have waited up to a year for an actual NCR assessment to happen, which is extremely concerning.”

Under the Criminal Code, court-ordered criminal responsibility assessments are required to be completed within 30 days, plus a 30-day extension, if necessary. If the report isn’t done in that time period, a new application must be made to the court.

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Sunday, Mar. 20, 2022

Under the Criminal Code, court-ordered criminal responsibility assessments are required to be completed within 30 days, plus a 30-day extension, if necessary. (John Woods / The Canadian Press Files)

30 years for decades of child sex abuse

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

30 years for decades of child sex abuse

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Mar. 17, 2022

In what is believed to be the longest sentence of its kind in Canada, a Winnipeg man convicted of sexually abusing two generations of children from the same family has been ordered to serve 30 years in prison.

“I see no principled reason to reduce the sentence below the 30 years sought by the Crown,” provincial court Judge Cynthia Devine said Thursday.

“The enormity, seriousness and harm caused by the offender to children lives on in Canadian society as these victims try to heal and live different lives… Reducing the sentence in these circumstances would seem arbitrary and untethered to the facts and circumstances of these offences, the offender and Canadian law.”

Alan Aloya Samson, 48, pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual interference involving nine children, six counts of making child pornography, and one count each of possessing child pornography and theft for offences committed between 1995 and 2020.

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Thursday, Mar. 17, 2022

DREAMSTIME / TNS
Alan Aloya Samson pleaded guilty to nine counts of sexual interference involving nine children, six counts of making child pornography, and one count each of possessing child pornography and theft for offences committed between 1995 and 2020.

Ex-Winnipeg CAO accepted bribe, could be on hook for $700K, court rules

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Ex-Winnipeg CAO accepted bribe, could be on hook for $700K, court rules

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 16, 2022

Former City of Winnipeg CAO Phil Sheegl could be on the hook for more than $700,000 in damages and restitution after a judge agreed with the city’s claim he accepted a bribe tied to construction of the Winnipeg Police Service headquarters.

“The city has persuaded me… that the elements of bribery have been satisfied,” Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said in a 126-page ruling released Tuesday.

In a lawsuit filed in January 2020, the city alleges contractor Caspian Construction, “in concert” with two dozen other defendants, including Sheegl, conspired and “schemed” to inflate the cost of the project for their own benefit. The city filed its lawsuit after a five-year RCMP investigation ended with no charges.

The case against Sheegl was severed from that of the other defendants in 2020 after his lawyer, Robert Tapper, argued the allegations against Sheegl are separate from the allegations that form the substance of the city’s lawsuit.

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Wednesday, Mar. 16, 2022

Former City of Winnipeg chief administrative officer Phil Sheegl. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Teen accused in park slaying had ‘instruction book on murder’: Crown

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Teen accused in park slaying had ‘instruction book on murder’: Crown

Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 15, 2022

A teen male arrested in the slaying of a 43-year-old Winnipeg man kept a manual on how to commit murder hidden in his bedroom, a court has heard.

Several disturbing allegations were disclosed at a bail hearing Monday for a female co-accused.

Paul Enns was found beaten to death in the back seat of his BMW in a parking lot in Assiniboine Park, around 3 a.m., Feb. 26. Winnipeg police arrested a 15-year-old Stonewall girl March 1, and a 17-year-old male from Warren three days later.

Both teens have been charged with second-degree murder and robbery with a weapon.

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Tuesday, Mar. 15, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Man pleads guilty to stabbing fellow bus rider for no reason

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man pleads guilty to stabbing fellow bus rider for no reason

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Mar. 10, 2022

Raymond Hill and Justin James boarded a city transit bus as strangers May 24, 2020.

Minutes later, Hill collapsed outside the bus, and died from a stab wound to his abdomen as police took James into custody.

James, 48, pleaded guilty to manslaughter Thursday.

“This really was such an unprovoked, avoidable attack that took Raymond Hill’s life,” Crown attorney Colin Soul told provincial court Judge Murray Thompson, recommending James be sentenced to 10 years in prison.

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Thursday, Mar. 10, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
The attack was witnessed by several passengers on the bus, including a man and his two grandchildren.

City cop off the hook in ticket-fixing case

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

City cop off the hook in ticket-fixing case

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Mar. 11, 2022

A Winnipeg police officer has been acquitted of logging into a police database to fix his own speeding ticket, despite the judge acknowledging his defence was “almost implausible.”

Patrol Sgt. Sean Cassidy, dressed in a suit and seated in the front row of the court gallery beside a supporter, showed no visible emotion as provincial court Judge Cindy Sholdice signalled her verdict in the opening minutes of her 30-minute decision Thursday.

Cassidy was tried on a charge of unauthorized use of a computer, fraud and obstruction of justice.

Cassidy had testified he was conducting an “integrity check” when he entered his own licence plate number into the Winnipeg Police Service’s photo radar database on Oct. 1, 2019.

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Friday, Mar. 11, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Sean Cassidy had testified he was conducting an “integrity check” when he entered his own licence plate number into the Winnipeg Police Service’s photo radar database on Oct. 1, 2019.

Family wins battle over cemetery plot, fights to have body moved

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Family wins battle over cemetery plot, fights to have body moved

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 9, 2022

A Deloraine family is seeking to have the body of a Manitoba man disinterred after winning a court fight proving they are the rightful owners of the cemetery plot in which he was mistakenly buried.

In a written decision released last week, Queen’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg ruled the family of Isobel and Lloyd Combs are the legal owners of two plots at the Del-Win Cemetery that the rural municipality resold in error to the family of Daniel Griffith.

With legal title to the plots decided, Greenberg’s decision paves the way for an application to the provincial health minister ordering that Griffith’s body be disinterred.

“This exact set of circumstances has never been decided in Canada,” said lawyer John Stewart, speaking on behalf of the Combs family.

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Wednesday, Mar. 9, 2022

COMMONWEALTH WAR GRAVES Del-Win Cemetery Deloraine, Manitoba

Second teen charged with murder in Assiniboine Park slaying

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Second teen charged with murder in Assiniboine Park slaying

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 8, 2022

A second teen has been arrested in the February slaying of a 43-year-old Winnipeg man in Assiniboine Park, city police confirmed Tuesday.

Paul Enns was found dead in his car in a parking lot near Shaftesbury Boulevard and Conservatory Drive at 3 a.m., Feb. 26. A park security officer alerted police after approaching the car and finding Enns dead inside, a city hall source told the Free Press last week.

On March 4, Winnipeg police arrested a 17-year-old boy from Warren. Three days earlier, a 15-year-old girl from Stonewall was arrested.

A police spokesman said investigators were aware of the second suspect at the time of the first suspect’s arrest, but were not then in a position to arrest him.

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Tuesday, Mar. 8, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Winnipeg police say the body of Paul Enns, 43, was discovered in a car in this parking lot off Conservatory Drive at Assiniboine Park, just north of Corydon Avenue, when officers responded to a well-being call at about 3 a.m., Saturday, February 26, 2022.

Judge rules licence should be returned to former pharmacist convicted in U.S. probe

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Judge rules licence should be returned to former pharmacist convicted in U.S. probe

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Mar. 7, 2022

A judge has ordered that a Manitoba internet pharmacy pioneer who faced charges in the U.S. involving importing and selling counterfeit drugs be given back his licence to practise pharmacy.

The Council of the College of Pharmacists of Manitoba cancelled Kristjan Thorkelson’s pharmaceutical licences in November 2019 following his conviction on charges in the U.S.

“The College was not able to point me to any decisions where conduct of a comparable nature, at least in terms of the degree of seriousness, resulted in a pharmacist losing their licence,” Queen’s Bench Justice Colleen Suche wrote in a 25-page decision last month.

“In fact, looking at the decisions from the College and elsewhere, conduct which arguably is as serious has resulted in nothing more than fines,” Suche said.

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Monday, Mar. 7, 2022

CP
Prescription pills containing oxycodone and acetaminophen are shown in this June 20, 2012 photo. Brand-name drug companies could put off introducing new medicine in Canada and scale back research here if the country makes a major shift to cheaper generic alternatives under a national pharmacare plan, according to an internal federal analysis. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graeme Roy

Three plead guilty in 2020 torture, murder

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Three plead guilty in 2020 torture, murder

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Saturday, Mar. 5, 2022

A man whose charred remains were discovered in Portage la Prairie was tortured and held captive for days after he was accused of sexually assaulting the girlfriend of one of his killers, a court has heard.

Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe, 27, was killed in a Winnipeg home in June 2020, before his body was burned and partially buried on the edge of a field.

On Friday, 31-year-old Kyle Evan Sinkovits and 27-year-old Jonathan Narvey pleaded guilty to second-degree murder, while co-accused Bobbi-Lynn Hall, 28, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact. They will be sentenced at a later date.

A fourth accused, 26-year-old Chelsea O’Hanley is set to stand trial in May on charges of first-degree murder, indignity to human remains, and accessory to murder after the fact.

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Saturday, Mar. 5, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES

Court orders Brandon police to pay woman in intimate photos case

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Court orders Brandon police to pay woman in intimate photos case

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Mar. 3, 2022

A woman who was dropped from a hiring competition with the Brandon Police Service after executives were provided with intimate images of her has been awarded $60,000 in damages.

Brittany Roque sued Terry Lynn Peters for sharing intimate images of her without her consent. The City of Brandon was named as a third party in the lawsuit.

“Ultimately, the situations where an individual’s intimate image can be distributed without that person’s consent should be few,” Queen’s Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk wrote in a 54-page ruling released Wednesday.

“Roque was not being investigated for a criminal offence,” Zinchuk said. “She had voluntarily applied for a position as a police officer with BPS. There is no rational explanation for why any of the images needed to be provided to (police) in order to fully consider and assess her application.”

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Thursday, Mar. 3, 2022

KYLE DARBYSON / THE BRANDON SUN
“She (Brittany Roque) had voluntarily applied for a position as a police officer with BPS. There is no rational explanation for why any of the images needed to be provided to (police) in order to fully consider and assess her application,” Justice Sandra Zinchuk wrote in the ruling.

Teen boy in hospital ‘primary suspect’ in park slaying, accused girl’s lawyer says

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Teen boy in hospital ‘primary suspect’ in park slaying, accused girl’s lawyer says

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Mar. 3, 2022

A yet-to-be arrested teen boy is the “primary suspect” in a Winnipeg man’s slaying in Assiniboine Park, says the lawyer representing a 15-year-old girl charged Tuesday with second-degree murder.

“It’s important for the public to understand there is a co-accused,” David Walker said Thursday. “Our position will be that the co-accused is the primary suspect.”

The body of 43-year-old Paul Enns was found early Saturday morning in a car parked in a secluded lot off Conservatory Drive, just north of Corydon Avenue.

A park security officer alerted police after approaching the car and finding Enns dead inside, a city hall source told the Free Press Wednesday.

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Thursday, Mar. 3, 2022

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The body of 43-year-old Paul Enns was found early Saturday morning in a car parked in a secluded lot off Conservatory Drive, just north of Corydon Avenue.

Plea bargain reached in cold-blooded killing of ex-inmate

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Plea bargain reached in cold-blooded killing of ex-inmate

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2022

A B.C. man who admitted he had fatally shot a recently released inmate as he left a Winnipeg halfway house has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years.

Dyllan Petrin pleaded guilty Wednesday to second-degree murder in the July 2020 shooting death of 31-year-old Cody Alexander Sleigh.

“This was clearly, by any standard, a cold-blooded murder… a senseless slaughter of another human being,” said Queen’s Bench Justice Rick Saull.

Petrin was set to stand trial for first-degree murder in April but agreed to plead guilty to the lesser charge in a deal that will allow him to apply for parole five years earlier than if had been convicted on the original charge.

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Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Court was told Cody Alexander Sleigh had left the Main Street halfway house shortly before 6 a.m. and was about to get into a taxi to go to work when Dyllan Petrin, who had been waiting outside wearing a yellow reflective vest as a disguise, shot Sleigh six times at point-blank range, including once in the head.

Accused in vendor slaying got break in 2020 robbery

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Accused in vendor slaying got break in 2020 robbery

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2022

Nearly two years before he was arrested in the slaying of a 19-year-old employee at a city beer vendor, William Sampson received a “pretty lucky” break for his part in another beer vendor robbery, court records show.

Sampson, 51, was one of three men arrested recently in the Feb. 15 killing of John Lloyd Barrion, who was shot during a late-night robbery at the Travelodge hotel beer store on Notre Dame Avenue.

A family member told the Free Press Barrion was found in a staff-only area behind a protective shield, which has an opening to allow transactions.

In April 2020, Sampson pleaded guilty to a single count of robbery in connection to two robberies committed on the same day at a Henderson Highway Shoppers Drug Mart and the beer vendor at the Four Crowns Inn on McPhillips Street.

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Wednesday, Mar. 2, 2022

John Lloyd Barrion was killed during a late-night robbery at a Notre Dame Avenue beer vendor. (Facebook)

John Lloyd Maaba Barrion, 19, who died after he was found injured at a beer vendor in Winnipeg early Tuesday morning, February 15, 2022.

City police are investigating his death as a homicide.

Winnipeg Free Press 2022

‘No longer feel safe’ after attack, senior tells court

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

‘No longer feel safe’ after attack, senior tells court

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022

A 98-year-old Winnipeg woman hospitalized after a stranger pulled her walker out from under her says she now “languish(es) in constant pain” and has lost her treasured independence.

“Her cowardly attack on me left me with disbelief that such trauma would ever occur in my lifetime,” the woman wrote in a victim impact statement provided to court for the sentencing of 44-year-old Amanda Castel.

The woman was rounding the corner of the former Hudson’s Bay building onto Portage Avenue, May 15, 2021, when she was “hit full force like a bolt of lightning.”

“(Castel) ran up behind and spun my walker away,” she said. “I just lay against the building unable to get up.”

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Tuesday, Mar. 1, 2022

People enter the Law Courts in Winnipeg on Feb. 5, 2018. A jury in Winnipeg is expected to hear closing arguments today in the murder trial for a man accused of fatally stabbing a three-year-old boy in 2019. Daniel Jensen, 34, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Hunter Smith-Straight. THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods

Killer of 96-year-old loses appeal

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Killer of 96-year-old loses appeal

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Friday, Feb. 25, 2022

A Manitoba man sentenced to life in prison for the shocking killing of a vulnerable senior has lost a second bid to have his conviction tossed out of court.

In 2017, a jury convicted Martin Sutherland of second-degree murder in the killing of 96-year-old MacGregor resident Niels Nielsen in 2014.

In an appeal rejected this week by Manitoba’s highest court, Sutherland, 62, argued the trial judge erred by admitting the evidence of a police officer regarding the absence of DNA at the crime scene.

Sutherland also argued the trial judge did not properly instruct jurors about a defence argument that the testimony of co-accused Jason Conway may have been tainted because he believed he was getting a deal to plead guilty to second-degree murder instead of first-degree murder.

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Friday, Feb. 25, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue in downtown Winnipeg.

Life sentence for ‘morally reprehensible’ killing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Life sentence for ‘morally reprehensible’ killing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022

Calling the unprovoked slaying of Winnipeg lawyer Justin Silicz “morally reprehensible,” a judge sentenced his killer Thursday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 14 years.

A jury convicted 22-year-old Keishawn Mitchell of second-degree murder following a trial last November.

Silicz, 32, died on June 2, 2019, after he was stabbed during an encounter with three strangers while walking to his car with his friends after they’d been an after-hours club.

Jurors rejected Mitchell’s claim he acted in self-defence when he stabbed Silicz two times in his midsection and was too intoxicated to form the intent to kill.

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Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022

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Justin Silicz, 32, died on June 2, 2019, after he was stabbed during an encounter with three strangers while walking to his car with his friends after they’d been an after-hours club.

Taxpayers on hook for $19M after Tories interfered in U of M contract

Maggie Macintosh and Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Taxpayers on hook for $19M after Tories interfered in U of M contract

Maggie Macintosh and Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022

A judge has ordered the Tory government to pay the union that represents academics at the University of Manitoba more than $19.3 million in damages after the province secretly inserted itself into bargaining talks at the university in 2016.

In a ruling delivered Wednesday, Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey concluded that the government should pay the U of M Faculty Association (UMFA) millions to address proposed wage increases that never came to be as a result of interference and strike-related fees, in addition to interest.

The award includes: $15 million in one-time payments to academics who worked at the U of M between April 2016 and March 2020 to address lost wages due to interference, a total of $1.6 million for wages lost amid picketing, and $2.7 million to UMFA for strike-related costs.

“Manitoba’s conduct significantly disrupted the balance between (U of M) and UMFA along with their relationship, as well as causing significant discord between UMFA and its membership. There was a serious and substantial undermining and interference with what had been a meaningful and productive process of collective bargaining,” McKelvey wrote.

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Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Former Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister’s government secretly interfered with bargaining talks at the University of Manitoba in 2016 according to a ruling by Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey.

Reserve files suit over logging in western Manitoba

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Reserve files suit over logging in western Manitoba

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022

A second Manitoba First Nation is taking the province and lumber giant Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. to court over commercial logging activity in western Manitoba.

Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation filed a lawsuit Wednesday that seeks a moratorium on all logging and forestry development activities in Porcupine Mountain Provincial Forest and Kettle Hills, and an order that the province complete “a process of meaningful consultation” with the First Nation before it can resume.

Wuskwi Sipihk First Nation’s two reserves are located north of Birch River and along the western shore of Swan Lake.

The province extended its licence agreement with Louisiana-Pacific in December, allowing it to build more roads, harvest more timber “and further erode the rights” of its members,” the first nation said in a news release Wednesday.

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Wednesday, Feb. 23, 2022

Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd. also has a contract to log in Duck Mountain Provincial Park (above). (Wilderness Committee photo)

Seven years for alcohol-fuelled fatal stabbing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Seven years for alcohol-fuelled fatal stabbing

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022

A Winnipeg woman who stabbed a city bootlegger and left him to die in his apartment has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Shyla Walker, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the August 2019 killing of 64-year-old John Graham Buesnel.

“This was not a crime Ms. Walker just got caught up in,” Crown attorney David Burland told Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond at a sentencing hearing Wednesday. “She stabbed him multiple times and left him to die.”

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Buesnel made wine, which he sold out of his Elgin Street apartment. Walker and her sister Taylor Lapierre, who was also initially charged in the killing, and their mother, were drinking at Buesnel’s apartment when the sisters got into an argument with Buesnel that turned physical.

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Thursday, Feb. 24, 2022

A Winnipeg woman who stabbed a city bootlegger and left him to die in his apartment has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Shyla Walker, 33, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the August 2019 killing of 64-year-old John Graham Buesnel.

“This was not a crime Ms. Walker just got caught up in,” Crown attorney David Burland told Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond at a sentencing hearing Wednesday. “She stabbed him multiple times and left him to die.”

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Buesnel made wine, which he sold out of his Elgin Street apartment. Walker and her sister Taylor Lapierre, who was also initially charged in the killing, and their mother, were drinking at Buesnel’s apartment when the sisters got into an argument with Buesnel that turned physical.

Suit alleges girl assaulted while in CFS care

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Suit alleges girl assaulted while in CFS care

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Feb. 18, 2022

A Winnipeg woman, who alleges she was sexually assaulted as a child after being temporarily placed in a hotel with no supervision, is suing the province and West Region Child and Family Services

The woman was nine years old in 1997 when she was taken into short-term voluntary care and lodged at Place Louis Riel Suite Hotel for two weeks while her mother received psychiatric care, according to a statement of claim filed this month.

The woman shared a room with a boy who was also in care, and they sleept in separate beds, with no adult supervision, the statement of claim alleges.

On her second night at the hotel, the boy sexually assaulted her.

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Friday, Feb. 18, 2022

A Winnipeg woman, who alleges she was sexually assaulted as a child after being temporarily placed in a hotel with no supervision, is suing the province and West Region Child and Family Services

The woman was nine years old in 1997 when she was taken into short-term voluntary care and lodged at Place Louis Riel Suite Hotel for two weeks while her mother received psychiatric care, according to a statement of claim filed this month.

The woman shared a room with a boy who was also in care, and they sleept in separate beds, with no adult supervision, the statement of claim alleges.

On her second night at the hotel, the boy sexually assaulted her.

Churches, pastors off financial hook after losing pandemic court challenge

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Churches, pastors off financial hook after losing pandemic court challenge

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022

They lost a court fight with the province over its COVID-19 public-health orders, but seven churches and three pastors who launched the legal challenge will not face an additional hit to their pocketbooks, a judge has ruled.

Gateway Bible Baptist Church, Pembina Valley Baptist Church, Redeeming Grace Bible Church, Grace Covenant Church, Slavic Baptist Church, Bible Baptist Church, the Christian Church of Morden and pastors Thomas Rempel, Tobias Tissen and Ross McKay will not be responsible for paying the province’s legal bills defending against the court challenge, Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal ruled in a written decision released earlier this month.

While costs are ordinarily awarded to the successful party in civil court proceedings, the “unique and particular circumstances of this case” justified an exception to the discretionary rule, Joyal wrote.

“When I consider the nature of the dispute, it is difficult not to conclude that this proceeding… involve(s) issues in the public interest,” he wrote. “The (churches and pastors) are not wrong to submit that given the scope of the public-health orders and the necessary restrictions implemented to address the pandemic, this litigation is one of the more significant constitutional law cases in Manitoba’s history.”

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Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022

Church of God (Restoration) pastor Tobias Tissen (speaking) won't have to chip in to cover provincial court costs. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Man sexually assaulted generations of same family over 25 years

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Man sexually assaulted generations of same family over 25 years

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022

THEY kept the secret for years, fearing disclosure of the abuse they suffered at the hands of a family friend would tear their families apart.

However, after one young victim came forward to police, more quickly followed, nine in all, including five from two generations of the same family, exposing a 25-year reign of child sexual abuse.

Now justice officials are urging a judge to sentence 48-year-old Alan Oloya Samson to 30 years in prison.

“Nothing less could properly address the gravity of the offences, the harm caused and the accused’s moral culpability,” Crown attorney Katie Dojack told provincial court Judge Cynthia Devine at a recent sentencing hearing.

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Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022

The Law Courts building at 408 York Ave. in Winnipeg. (Mike Deal / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Convict loses bid to withdraw guilty plea 10 years later

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Convict loses bid to withdraw guilty plea 10 years later

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022

Ten years after she admitted beating a frail customer to death, a former Winnipeg sex-trade worker has lost a legal fight to withdraw her guilty plea to second-degree murder.

Mary Ellen Thomas, 41, was sentenced in December 2011 to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 10 years, in the July 2010 killing of 62-year-old Michael Allen.

In a decision last week, Manitoba’s highest court rejected Thomas’s claim her guilty plea was compromised by severe mental illness and thus not voluntary.

“Although the accused has undoubtedly had severe mental health problems for years, and sought the prospect of a change from her custodial situation and the availability of long-term psychiatric care when she decided to plead guilty… she has not established that her guilty plea was not voluntary and resulted in a miscarriage of justice,” Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Karen Simonsen wrote in a decision delivered Feb. 11.

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Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2022

Ten years after she admitted beating a frail customer to death, a former Winnipeg sex-trade worker has lost a legal fight to withdraw her guilty plea to second-degree murder.

Mary Ellen Thomas, 41, was sentenced in December 2011 to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 10 years, in the July 2010 killing of 62-year-old Michael Allen.

In a decision last week, Manitoba’s highest court rejected Thomas’s claim her guilty plea was compromised by severe mental illness and thus not voluntary.

“Although the accused has undoubtedly had severe mental health problems for years, and sought the prospect of a change from her custodial situation and the availability of long-term psychiatric care when she decided to plead guilty… she has not established that her guilty plea was not voluntary and resulted in a miscarriage of justice,” Manitoba Court of Appeal Justice Karen Simonsen wrote in a decision delivered Feb. 11.

Errors by Crown, police undermine fair trial, search for truth in drunk driving case: judge

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Errors by Crown, police undermine fair trial, search for truth in drunk driving case: judge

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022

Charges against a semi-truck driver accused of drunk driving have been tossed out of court after a judge ruled “misrepresentations” by police and a failure by the Crown to provide key evidence to the defence before it was “lost” critically undermined his right to a fair trial.

“A judicial stay is an extraordinary remedy reserved for the clearest of cases,” provincial court Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said in a recently released written decision. “In the unusual circumstances of this case… the lost evidence not only prejudices the accused’s right to a fair trial, but also deprives the court of its ability to seek the truth and appropriately adjudicate the case on its merits.

“I am unable to identify any remedy short of a stay of proceedings that sufficiently redresses the prejudice occasioned by the loss of evidence arising from unsatisfactorily explained, unacceptable negligence on the part of the Crown.”

According to court records, Partap Waraich was arrested May 2, 2019, after a tow truck driver called RCMP to report a semi-truck and trailer being driven erratically on the Trans-Canada Highway near Virden.

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Saturday, Feb. 12, 2022

Charges against a semi-truck driver accused of drunk driving have been tossed out of court after a judge ruled “misrepresentations” by police and a failure by the Crown to provide key evidence to the defence before it was “lost” critically undermined his right to a fair trial.

“A judicial stay is an extraordinary remedy reserved for the clearest of cases,” provincial court Judge Shauna Hewitt-Michta said in a recently released written decision. “In the unusual circumstances of this case… the lost evidence not only prejudices the accused’s right to a fair trial, but also deprives the court of its ability to seek the truth and appropriately adjudicate the case on its merits.

“I am unable to identify any remedy short of a stay of proceedings that sufficiently redresses the prejudice occasioned by the loss of evidence arising from unsatisfactorily explained, unacceptable negligence on the part of the Crown.”

According to court records, Partap Waraich was arrested May 2, 2019, after a tow truck driver called RCMP to report a semi-truck and trailer being driven erratically on the Trans-Canada Highway near Virden.

Family of slain lawyer offers forgiveness to killer

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Family of slain lawyer offers forgiveness to killer

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022

In voices sometimes choked with anguish, family members of a young city lawyer who died defending a friend from a senseless assault offered forgiveness to his killer Thursday.

“I release you from the unpayable debt you owe for my brother’s life,” Michael Silicz told 22-year-old Keishawn Mitchell at a sentencing hearing Thursday.

Justin Silicz, 32, died on June 2, 2019, after he was stabbed while walking to his car from an after-hours club with friends.

A jury convicted Mitchell of second-degree murder following a trial last November.

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Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022

MIKAELA MACKENZIE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
Michael Silicz, brother of the victim, Justin Silicz with parents Walter (left) and Nicole Silicz.

Men ‘fess up after star witness testifies

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Men ‘fess up after star witness testifies

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022

After two hours of damning testimony from the Crown’s star witness, a second-degree murder trial for two Berens River First Nation men came to an abrupt end Tuesday.

Gerald Patrick, 46, and his cousin Timothy Patrick, 31, stood accused of beating 39-year-old Kevin Kennedy to death with a baseball bat outside Gerald Patrick’s house trailer on Nov. 16, 2019.

After Kennedy’s then-girlfriend April Semple provided eyewitness testimony of the attack, the two accused returned from the lunch break Tuesday with an agreement to plead guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Prosecutors accepted the pleas on the agreement Kennedy was beaten with a baseball bat, but it could not be proven which of the accused wielded the weapon, Crown attorney Dan Angus told court.

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Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022

Two men accused of second-degree murder pleaded guilty to manslaughter after court heard testimony from an eyewitness. (Daniel Crump / Bloomberg Media files)

Two men pay for their part in separate killings

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Two men pay for their part in separate killings

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022

A British Columbia man has been sentenced to 18 years in prison for his part in killing another B.C. man outside a Winnipeg halfway house.

Kleon Cassidy Pop, 34, was originally charged with first-degree murder in the July 2020 shooting death of 31-year-old Cody Alexander Sleigh, but in a plea deal with the Crown agreed to enter a guilty plea to the reduced charge of manslaughter.

In an agreed statement of facts provided to court, Pop is identified as the getaway driver for another man prosecutors allege shot Sleigh. That man, Dyllan Petrin, also from B.C., is set to stand trial in April.

Court was told all three men had served prison time together in B.C. before Sleigh, who had been convicted of kidnapping and other offences, was released from Saskatchewan Penitentiary four months prior to his death.

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Tuesday, Feb. 8, 2022

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Darlus McKay, 19, was shot in the back.

Accused given benefit of doubt in night hunting case

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Accused given benefit of doubt in night hunting case

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022

TWO Manitoba men caught in a truck with a rifle and ammunition at the ready as they shone flashlights into a farmer’s field were found not guilty of night hunting.

A judge ruled she could not outright reject their claim they were just looking around.

Richard Gilbert Fontaine and Jeffrey Lohr-Mansbridge stood trial charged with hunting at night without a permit and hunting on private land without the owner’s permission.

“Is it suspicious that Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Lohr-Mansbridge were driving around in the middle of the night with the light bar on and moving flashlights over the field? Yes, of course it is,” provincial court Judge Catherine Carlson wrote in her decision acquitting the men.

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Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022

TWO Manitoba men caught in a truck with a rifle and ammunition at the ready as they shone flashlights into a farmer’s field were found not guilty of night hunting.

A judge ruled she could not outright reject their claim they were just looking around.

Richard Gilbert Fontaine and Jeffrey Lohr-Mansbridge stood trial charged with hunting at night without a permit and hunting on private land without the owner’s permission.

“Is it suspicious that Mr. Fontaine and Mr. Lohr-Mansbridge were driving around in the middle of the night with the light bar on and moving flashlights over the field? Yes, of course it is,” provincial court Judge Catherine Carlson wrote in her decision acquitting the men.

Lawsuit delayed is lawsuit denied

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Lawsuit delayed is lawsuit denied

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Monday, Jan. 31, 2022

A Manitoba man’s $16 million lawsuit over his wrongful murder conviction has been dealt a legal setback after a judge ruled he took too long to pursue legal action against nearly all of the people he is suing.

“We haven’t given up,” Frank Ostrowski said Monday. “We are appealing the judge’s decision.”

Ostrowski, 72, was convicted in 1987 of orchestrating the drug-related shooting death of 22-year-old Robert Nieman and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

In November 2018, nine years after he was released on bail pending a federal review of his case, the Manitoba Court of Appeal stayed Ostrowski’s conviction — ruling an undisclosed prosecution deal with police informant Matthew Lovelace in return for his testimony resulted in a miscarriage of justice.

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Monday, Jan. 31, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
In June 2020, Frank Ostrowski filed a lawsuit against 12 defendants, alleging they "wilfully disregarded" his constitutional right to make full answer and defence to the charges against him.

Manitoba parents found guilty of severely abusing their twins

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Manitoba parents found guilty of severely abusing their twins

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022

A rural Manitoba couple has been convicted of child abuse and neglect after their young twins were apprehended with dozens of broken bones and other injures medical authorities described as “medically devastating.”

Both offenders were convicted of two counts each of failing to provide the necessaries of life and criminal negligence causing bodily harm following a virtual hearing Friday before Queen’s Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk. The mother was convicted of two additional counts of aggravated assault.

The parents cannot be named in order to protect the identity of their children.

In July 2019, child welfare authorities seized the one-year-old children after social workers visited the couple’s farm and found the children bruised and malnourished. They were in clear medical distress.

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Saturday, Jan. 29, 2022

A rural Manitoba couple has been convicted of child abuse and neglect after their young twins were apprehended with dozens of broken bones and other injures medical authorities described as “medically devastating.”

Both offenders were convicted of two counts each of failing to provide the necessaries of life and criminal negligence causing bodily harm following a virtual hearing Friday before Queen’s Bench Justice Sandra Zinchuk. The mother was convicted of two additional counts of aggravated assault.

The parents cannot be named in order to protect the identity of their children.

In July 2019, child welfare authorities seized the one-year-old children after social workers visited the couple’s farm and found the children bruised and malnourished. They were in clear medical distress.

Man’s arrest ‘ugly side of policing’: defence

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man’s arrest ‘ugly side of policing’: defence

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022

A Winnipeg man on trial for assaulting two police officers says police mistakenly identified him as a suspected criminal before forcefully taking him to the ground and repeatedly shocking him with a Taser.

“This case displays the ugly side of policing in downtown Winnipeg,” Shaun Anobis’s lawyer, Martin Pollock, told a judge in a closing argument earlier this week.

“This case concerns stereotyping, embellishment, deception and the substandard professionalism of these officers,” Pollock said.

Anobis, 38, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.

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Thursday, Jan. 27, 2022

A Winnipeg man on trial for assaulting two police officers says police mistakenly identified him as a suspected criminal before forcefully taking him to the ground and repeatedly shocking him with a Taser.

“This case displays the ugly side of policing in downtown Winnipeg,” Shaun Anobis’s lawyer, Martin Pollock, told a judge in a closing argument earlier this week.

“This case concerns stereotyping, embellishment, deception and the substandard professionalism of these officers,” Pollock said.

Anobis, 38, has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest.

Drug trafficker gets ‘incredible break’ for pleading guilty

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

Drug trafficker gets ‘incredible break’ for pleading guilty

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022

A Winnipeg man ensnared in an interprovincial police sting that targeted high-volume cocaine traffickers has been sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison.

Nyke Thorpe, 41, was one of seven Manitobans and four Ontario residents arrested in October 2020 following a joint Winnipeg Police Service and Ontario Provincial Police investigation dubbed Project Wonders.

The crime group’s core activities involved moving multiple kilograms of cocaine from southern Ontario to Winnipeg using traditional parcel and courier services and delivering millions of dollars in proceeds back to Ontario the same way.

Thorpe, who pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking cocaine, came to the attention of investigators in February 2020 after he was spotted completing a suspected drug deal with one of Project Wonders’ primary targets, Crown attorney Matthew Sinclair told court Wednesday.

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Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022

A Winnipeg man ensnared in an interprovincial police sting that targeted high-volume cocaine traffickers has been sentenced to 7 ½ years in prison.

Nyke Thorpe, 41, was one of seven Manitobans and four Ontario residents arrested in October 2020 following a joint Winnipeg Police Service and Ontario Provincial Police investigation dubbed Project Wonders.

The crime group’s core activities involved moving multiple kilograms of cocaine from southern Ontario to Winnipeg using traditional parcel and courier services and delivering millions of dollars in proceeds back to Ontario the same way.

Thorpe, who pleaded guilty to one count of trafficking cocaine, came to the attention of investigators in February 2020 after he was spotted completing a suspected drug deal with one of Project Wonders’ primary targets, Crown attorney Matthew Sinclair told court Wednesday.

First Nation seeks court order to halt logging in provincial park

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Preview

First Nation seeks court order to halt logging in provincial park

Dean Pritchard 2 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022

A Manitoba First Nation is taking the province to court in a bid to halt commercial logging in Duck Mountain Provincial Park.

In a notice of application filed in court Tuesday, Pine Creek (also known as Minegoziibe Anishinabe) is seeking an order quashing a government extension of Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd.’s logging rights in the western Manitoba park.

The First Nation alleges the province failed in its duty to “consult and accommodate” it before extending the term of Louisiana-Pacific’s forest management licence agreement.

“The days of simply taking wealth from our mountain, while our people cannot even get food for their families from our traditional lands, are over,” Chief Derek Nepinak said in a news release.

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Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022

Pine Creek is seeking an order to cancel a government extension of Louisiana-Pacific Canada Ltd.’s logging rights in the western Manitoba park. (Wilderness Committee files)

No parole eligibility for 12 years for 2018 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

No parole eligibility for 12 years for 2018 murder

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022

KRISTOPHER Watt had already stabbed one man three times and fled from a downtown Winnipeg hotel, when he returned minutes later and stabbed a second man to death.

Exactly why Watt chose to return to the hotel was the central focus of a judge’s decision Tuesday to sentence him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 12 years.

Watt, 42, was set to stand trial in October for first-degree murder in the November 2018 killing of Maurice Cameron, but agreed to plead guilty to the lesser offence of second-degree murder.

Court heard Watt visited Cameron, 54, at his room at the Windsor Hotel trying to retrieve a necklace he had left with a woman the night before. Cameron refused to return it, demanding “compensation.”

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Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES
The Law Courts building at 408 York Avenue in downtown Winnipeg.

‘Inordinately high’ $500-K defamation award slashed on appeal

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

‘Inordinately high’ $500-K defamation award slashed on appeal

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, Jan. 24, 2022

A Winnipeg real estate broker and developer awarded $500,000 by a jury in a defamation lawsuit has had the award slashed to a fraction of its size by Manitoba’s highest court.

The original damage award “was so inordinately high that it was an erroneous estimate of the damage done to the plaintiff (Marcel Chartier),” the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled in a written decision last week, reducing the award to $50,000.

“Civil jury trials in Manitoba are rare,” wrote Justice William Burnett on behalf of the appeal court. “Awards for defamation (in the original amount) are virtually non-existent.”

Chartier declined to comment on the decision Monday.

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Monday, Jan. 24, 2022

Serge Bibeau entered into an agreement with Marcel Chartier and his son in 2009 that would see them each invest $1.25 million in the IKEA development, with profits and losses to be shared equally between them. (Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Man deemed not criminally responsible for 2020 homicide

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Man deemed not criminally responsible for 2020 homicide

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Jan. 21, 2022

A judge has found a Winnipeg man not criminally responsible for killing a woman while in the grip of a delusion she was possessed by a demon.

Kodey Trudeau was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Jan 10, 2020, after he beat and choked housemate Reagan Gross to death in the kitchen of his St. Vital neighbourhood home.

Gross, 49, had moved into the house just a couple of months prior.

Trudeau freely admitted killing Gross and, in a police interview a short time later, told investigators she had been “infected” by a demon that meant him harm.

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Friday, Jan. 21, 2022

Daniel Crump / Free Press files
Kodey Trudeau was arrested and charged with second-degree murder Jan 10, 2020, after he beat and choked housemate Reagan Gross to death in the kitchen of his St. Vital neighbourhood home.

Demon ‘from hell’ drove accused to kill housemate, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Demon ‘from hell’ drove accused to kill housemate, court told

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022

A Winnipeg man who admits choking his housemate to death with a kitchen bench was driven by a delusion she was possessed by a demon, a court has heard.

Kodey Lionel Trudeau, 35, pleaded not guilty Thursday to second-degree murder in the January 2020 killing of 49-year-old Reagan Danielle Gross, arguing he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time.

A two-day hearing is expected to wrap up Friday, after which Queen’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne will rule whether Trudeau should be found not criminally responsible for the killing.

If Trudeau is found not criminally responsible for Gross’s death, his case becomes the responsibility of the Manitoba Criminal Review Board, which will decide whether he can be released from custody or requires further time in a psychiatric facility.

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Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022

Daniel Crump / Winnipeg Free Press. Police forensics officers investigate a major incident at a house on Hindley Avenue in St. Vital. January 11, 2020.

City construction firm allegedly swindled out of $410K

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

City construction firm allegedly swindled out of $410K

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022

A longtime Winnipeg construction company has filed a lawsuit against National Bank of Canada after fraudsters claiming to be a subcontractor allegedly bilked the company of nearly $410,000.

The money was funneled through an account with the bank by scammers who remain unidentified, according to a statement of claim filed last week in Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench by Maple Leaf Construction Ltd.

According to the statement of claim, Maple Leaf was the general contractor on a project installing concrete culverts underneath a highway when, in January 2021, it retained another company, Tri-Core Project Ltd., as a subcontractor for the project.

In an email to Maple Leaf three months later, fraudsters posing as representatives of Tri-Core claimed the company’s banking information had changed and asked when Maple Leaf intended to make its next bill payment so it could arrange for an electronic fund transfer, says the statement of claim.

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Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Maple Leaf Construction, head office at 777 Erin Street, filing lawsuit after they were scammed out of $400,000. Apparently, they had a sub-contractor do some work on a job and were later contacted to say the contractor’s banking information had changed. Maple Lead paid their bill using the new information only to learn it wasnt the sub-contractor who had contacted them, but fraud artists. Maple Leaf doesn’t know who the fraudsters are, so the only named defendant in the lawsuit is the bank that handled the transaction. This shows even big corporations can fall prey to these scams. See Dean Pritchard story 220119 - Wednesday, January 19, 2022.

Unvaccinated U of W Collegiate instructors sue over forced leave

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Unvaccinated U of W Collegiate instructors sue over forced leave

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Jan. 14, 2022

Three University of Winnipeg Collegiate instructors are suing the university and the provincial government after they were forced to take unpaid leave over the school’s COVID-19 vaccination policy.

In a statement of claim filed Monday, instructors Renise Mlodzinski, Evan Maltman and Kyle Du Val allege they were placed on involuntary leave last September after the university enacted a policy requiring everyone working or attending classes on campus to provide proof they are fully vaccinated against the virus.

The policy describes vaccination as “the single most effective public health measure to reduce the spread of COVID-19” and “essential” to the university’s response to the pandemic.

The instructors argue “autonomy” over their own personal health issues takes priority over “reduction or elimination of the associated risks to life.”

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Friday, Jan. 14, 2022

Three University of Winnipeg instructors are suing the school and province after they were forced to take unpaid leave becuase of the school’s COVID-19 vaccination policy. (Mikaela MacKenzie / Winnipeg Free Press)

Repeat sex offender ‘must be separated from society’: judge

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Repeat sex offender ‘must be separated from society’: judge

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Friday, Jan. 14, 2022

A repeat sex offender from Winnipeg who started luring new child victims just hours after he was released from prison on day parole has been sentenced to 14 years in custody for his latest string of crimes.

“I’m not sure if you are able to be rehabilitated or not — I certainly hope so, for the children — but you must be separated from society for a significant amount of time… to keep you away from children for as long as possible,” provincial court Judge Kael McKenzie told David Thomas Pearson at a sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Pearson, 39, pleaded guilty last year to five counts of internet luring involving five girls between the ages of 12 and 16, one count of possessing child pornography and one count of violating a court order he have no contact with children under 16.

Pearson appeared in court via video from Bowden Institution in Alberta, where he is serving the remainder of a prior six-year sentence for child luring offences.

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Friday, Jan. 14, 2022

A repeat sex offender from Winnipeg who started luring new child victims just hours after he was released from prison on day parole has been sentenced to 14 years in custody for his latest string of crimes.

“I’m not sure if you are able to be rehabilitated or not — I certainly hope so, for the children — but you must be separated from society for a significant amount of time… to keep you away from children for as long as possible,” provincial court Judge Kael McKenzie told David Thomas Pearson at a sentencing hearing Tuesday.

Pearson, 39, pleaded guilty last year to five counts of internet luring involving five girls between the ages of 12 and 16, one count of possessing child pornography and one count of violating a court order he have no contact with children under 16.

Pearson appeared in court via video from Bowden Institution in Alberta, where he is serving the remainder of a prior six-year sentence for child luring offences.

Monstrosity Burger owners face monster fine over pandemic restrictions

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Monstrosity Burger owners face monster fine over pandemic restrictions

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022

Days after Monstrosity Burger touted on social media how customers had “cleaned us out” of food, the province has confirmed the restaurant’s owners are now facing a monstrous fine of up to $1 million for repeated alleged breaches of pandemic restrictions.

The Corydon Avenue burger restaurant, and the adjoining Tuxedo Village Family Restaurant, which is run by the same owners, have been hit with seven counts of violating the Public Health Act, according to the province’s latest enforcement update.

According to court documents, the offences are alleged to have occurred Nov. 24-26. They include three counts each of failing to restrict admission to customers who can provide proof of vaccination and failing to remind customers to wear a mask when required, and one count of failing to ensure anyone arriving for a takeout order is able to maintain a two-metre distance from customers.

A woman who identified herself on the phone as a manager at Monstrosity Burger declined to speak to a reporter Wednesday afternoon. “We’re not interested in speaking with anybody,” the woman said. “Have a great day, OK.”

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Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Monstrosity Burger is facing a fine of up to $1 million for repeated alleged breaches of pandemic restrictions.

Exotic dancer sues club over nude images

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Exotic dancer sues club over nude images

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Monday, Jan. 10, 2022

A male exotic dancer is suing a Winnipeg nightclub after it allegedly posted nude images of him on its Facebook page without his knowledge.

According to a statement of claim filed in Manitoba Court of Queen’s Bench, the man (identified in court records only by his initials) is seeking a court order that Fame Nightclub and a photographer in its employ cease any further distribution of the images and provide a list of anyone who has seen or received them.

“The defendants’ unlawful creation, distribution, publishing, transmission and use of the intimate images without the plaintiff’s consent amounts to a gross breach of the plaintiff’s privacy” and has caused “significant and irreparable reputational and personal harm to the plaintiff,” the statement of claim alleges.

According to the documents, the man was hired by a client to provide a private dance performance in a VIP area of the Garry Street nightclub July 6, 2019.

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Monday, Jan. 10, 2022

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS LOCAL - Fame Nightclub suit Outside building shot of 110 Market Street where Fame is now located. PRIVATE DANCER SUES (will advise): Might file something of a statement of claim filed by a dancer hired in advance by a customer to dance for them at a private party in the VIP area Fame nightclub. The barճ photographer took photos of the dance while nude, and the pics were posted on Fameճ Facebook page. The dancer is suing the nightclub and photographer. DEAN Jan 7th, 2022

Police identify suspected killers in North End father’s death

Malak Abas and Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Preview

Police identify suspected killers in North End father’s death

Malak Abas and Dean Pritchard 5 minute read Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022

One of two men identified as suspects in the killing of a Winnipeg father of five last month made headlines three years ago after he was convicted of a random, unprovoked attack on a dog.

Alex Arumeul Genaille, 23, and 22-year-old Thunder Lightning Fontaine are wanted in the shooting death of Anthony Sinclair.

Sinclair, 35, was shot just minutes after leaving his home for a corner-store run during the evening of Dec. 9 near the intersection of Stella Avenue and McGregor Street. He died of his injuries in hospital.

Winnipeg police announced Thursday that arrest warrants had been issued for Genaille and Fontaine on second-degree murder charges. Police have not released any other details, including how the two men were identified and possible motive.

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Thursday, Jan. 6, 2022

A vigil was held for Anthony Sinclair on Stella Avenue in December following his death. (Mike Sudoma / Winnipeg Free Press files)

Saskatchewan Mountie memorial reaches fundraising goal

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Preview

Saskatchewan Mountie memorial reaches fundraising goal

Dean Pritchard 3 minute read Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022

Six months after Indian Head RCMP Const. Shelby Patton was killed in the line of duty, organizers behind a memorial park in his honour say they have already reached their fundraising goal and are eyeing an opening date as early as summer.

As of Dec. 30, donors from across the country had contributed $155,400 for construction of the Constable Shelby Patton Memorial Park, said McKenzie Craigie, facility operations manager for Indian Head, Sask., and a member of the memorial park’s development committee.

“We had obviously a lot of community support and regional support, as our RCMP detachment serves 13 other communities and rural municipalities,” as well as the support of the National Police Federation and the Regina division of the RCMP Veterans’ Association, Craigie said.

“That really helped spread the message.”

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Wednesday, Jan. 5, 2022

supplied
As of Dec. 30, donors from across the country had contributed $155,400 for construction of the Constable Shelby Patton Memorial Park.

Retired judge wins small-claims victory after overnight perogy delivery arrives four days late

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Preview

Retired judge wins small-claims victory after overnight perogy delivery arrives four days late

Dean Pritchard 4 minute read Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022

They are a culinary staple as integral to many a Manitoba Christmas dinner as homemade stuffing and cranberry sauce.

But when Donald and Doreen Bryk’s freshly frozen batch of homemade perogies absolutely, positively had to be delivered overnight to their son in Toronto, Federal Express didn’t live up to its famous promise.

Instead, the eight-dozen pockets of doughy goodnesss arrived four days later, Dec. 21, 2020, a thawed-out mess that went straight to the garbage bin.

And when FedEx refused to compensate the Bryks for the botched delivery, Donald Bryk took the corporate behemoth to court — and won.

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Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2022

JOHN WOODS / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Retired judge Donald Bryk (John Woods / Winnipeg Free Press)

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