Plea bargain ends one of biggest homicide cases in city history

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This article was published 22/10/2012 (4757 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of the biggest homicide cases in Winnipeg history has ended with a plea bargain.

Lulonda Lynn Flett, 41, admitted Monday to torching an Austin Street rooming house last summer while eight people were inside. Five victims were killed, while three others narrowly escaped.

Flett pleaded guilty to five counts of manslaughter and one count of arson after justice officials agreed to drop more serious charges of second-degree murder. The manslaughter offence implies the deaths were unintentional, even accidental.

Killed in the fire were Norman Anderson, 22, Maureen Harper, 54, Kenneth Monkman, 49, Dean Stranden, 44, and Robert Laforte, 56. No further details of the case, including a motive, have been released.

Flett is being held in custody without bail and will be sentenced on March 21. She faces a maximum penalty of life behind bars with no chance of parole for at least seven years, but there is no minimum sentence.

Had she been convicted of second-degree murder, Flett would have received an automatic life term with no parole eligibility for at least a decade.

Defence lawyer Darren Sawchuk requested a court-ordered report that will study his client’s aboriginal upbringing to determine what, if any, leniency she should be given.

The Supreme Court has previously ruled some native offenders should receive reduced penalties if their troubled background may have contributed to their criminal behaviour.

Court records obtained by the Free Press show Flett was in court three days before the deadly blaze, where she pleaded guilty to a November 2009 beating in a West End parking lot and received 12 months of supervised probation.

Flett is a mother to six children and was based in St. Theresa Point, a community about 610 kilometres northeast of Winnipeg. She has a Grade 11 education and had no criminal record prior to the 2009 incident, which one lawyer argued should entitle her to some leniency.