Willis guilty of first-degree murder

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 24/04/2015 (3813 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A debt owed. A decision made. A life stolen.

Now, the Winnipeg man behind a sadistic killing has been convicted of the most serious charge in the Criminal Code.

Treyvonne Willis, 22, showed little reaction Friday as jurors — several of them weeping — found him guilty of first-degree murder for the 2012 ambush and execution of 27-year-old Kaila Tran outside her St. Vital apartment block.

He was immediately sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years.

“The murder was cold and planned and it was ruthlessly executed,” Queen’s Bench Chief Justice Glenn Joyal said in concluding the high-profile case. “It is one of the most heinous crimes that can be carried out in a civilized society.”

Jurors had been deliberating since late Thursday morning, and the heavy burden placed upon them was apparent on their faces. All 12 chose to remain for the sentencing hearing, which included powerful victim-impact statements from Tran’s stepfather and two sisters.

“This has been a nightmare from Day 1. The reason will never make sense to us,” said Robert Fawley. “She never did anything to anyone. How could something like this happen to her? It made no sense then. It makes less sense now.”

He described Tran as a remarkable young woman “who had the biggest smile in the room and the biggest heart to match.”

He recalled their final conversation, telling her he loved her and would see her soon.

“Thirty hours later, she was dead,” he said.

Sabrina Anger-Fawley’s statement, read out by the Crown, said the entire family has been shattered by the cowardly killing of her sister.

“She was my best friend. Always there for me,” she wrote. “My family is no longer whole. Nobody is happy. Everyone is waiting for their turn to die.”

Anger-Fawley described seeing Tran in hospital, hooked up to machines and fighting a battle she would not win. “She had a smile that was stolen from her by a careless act. Why did she have to be the one to go?” she said. “I want peace. And I want justice for my sister’s soul.”

Willis declined an invitation to speak in court Friday. But he had plenty to say in a lengthy videotaped police interview following his arrest, admitting to carrying out the murder in an attempt to get out of a drug debt that may have been as high as $100,000.

“I (expletive) up,” Willis said at one point in the video. “I deserve to go to jail for what I did. I murdered her.” He refused to say who put him up to the killing.

Despite the admission, Willis fought the charge on several grounds. Defence lawyer Ursula Goeres accused police of repeatedly breaching Willis’s rights during the more than 16 hours they had him locked in the interview room. In her final remarks to the jury, Goeres suggested her client was telling police what they wanted to hear out of necessity.

Goeres conceded there was other evidence — such as phone records and surveillance video — that placed Willis at the scene of the killing. But she told jurors that didn’t mean he was guilty of premeditated murder.

Goeres suggested Willis may have just been an observer while another man carried out the slaying. She pointed the finger of blame at Tremaine Sam-Kelly, a key Crown witness who testified against Willis, his former friend. Sam-Kelly told jurors he was asked to provide “support” for Willis before, during and after the killing.

Sam-Kelly told jurors Willis was a desperate man willing to do anything to dig himself out of a huge financial hole linked to his drug habit.

Even if jurors accepted Willis plunged the knife into Tran, his lawyer urged them to consider he may have been too high on drugs at the time to form the necessary intent for first-degree murder. Sam-Kelly testified he and Willis both took an unknown quantity of “Molly” — also called ecstasy — just before the killing.

Goeres also suggested her client may have just been planning to rob Tran, not kill her, when things got out of hand and he acted “impulsively.”

Jurors did have several alternative verdicts to consider, including second-degree murder or manslaughter.

With Willis now serving a life sentence, Manitoba justice officials must decide what to do with the man previously accused of hiring him to carry out the crime.

Drake Moslenko, 28, walked out of court a free man last June when the Crown abruptly announced a stay-of-proceedings on a first-degree murder charge. Moslenko — Tran’s boyfriend — was in the midst of a preliminary hearing at the time. The Crown told court the surprise decision was made after losing a legal ruling earlier in the hearing. No other explanation was provided. A court-ordered ban prevents specific details of the proceedings from being published.

The move gave the Crown exactly one year to either re-lay the charge against Moslenko or forever lose the ability to prosecute him. That deadline is fast approaching. It’s not clear what, if any, impact the Willis trial and verdict will have on their decision.

 

www.mikeoncrime.com