Settlement reached in Kaila Tran homicide

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This article was published 01/05/2019 (2345 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An out-of-court settlement has been reached in a wrongful death lawsuit, which was filed in Manitoba civil court over a high-profile case in which a first-degree murder charge was stayed.

Kaila Tran, 26, was stabbed 31 times in a daytime attack outside her St. Vital apartment on June 20, 2012. The brutal slaying traumatized onlookers and set in motion a tangled web of legal proceedings.

Winnipeg police claimed Tran’s long-term boyfriend, Drake Moslenko, was the mastermind behind her killing.

Police alleged Moslenko, now 33, hired Treyvonne Willis to kill his girlfriend. In exchange, he would allow Willis off the hook for a sizable debt.

The two men were charged with first-degree murder within days of Tran’s death.

Willis, who confessed to ambushing and repeatedly stabbing Tran, was convicted in 2015. He was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

In a videotaped confession shown to jurors at his trial, Willis admitted to police he’d been hired to kill Tran, but refused to implicate anyone else directly. He said he and his family would be in danger if he began “dropping names.”

The first-degree murder charge against Moslenko was stayed by the Crown in June 2014, after the prosecutor lost an important ruling on evidence.

Moslenko has consistently denied having anything to do with his former girlfriend’s slaying, although he admitted to being acquaintances with Willis.

“I had no reason whatsoever to cause the death of (Tran), as I loved her and we continued to live together until the day she died,” he said in past court documents.

After Moslenko was freed, Tran’s estate sued him in civil court, claiming he was responsible for the young woman’s death and had sought to cash-in on her life insurance policies.

The statement of claim said Tran had began dating Moslenko in 2009 but she had intended to end the relationship after she discovered he was cheating on her.

“(Moslenko) was a named beneficiary on two life insurance policies in (Tran’s) name. Immediately following (her) murder, (he) took steps to recover the insurance proceeds,” the statement of claim reads. “The plaintiff states that the defendant planned and conspired with Willis to cause (Tran’s) death.”

Moslenko’s lawyers moved to quash the lawsuit, claiming it had no merit. However, the judge refused to throw it out and the case was set to go to trial Jan. 27, 2020.

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A document filed in the Court of Queen’s Bench on April 18 indicates an out-of-court settlement has been reached between Moslenko and Tran’s estate.

The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. Court documents indicate settlement talks had been ongoing for months.

— with files from Mike McIntyre and James Turner

ryan.thorpe@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @rk_thorpe