Second manslaughter conviction in 12 years for Manitoba man

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This article was published 30/09/2021 (1485 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba man already sentenced to prison for manslaughter was convicted of the same crime again Thursday, this time for a meth-fuelled attack on a stranger.

Rodney Williams stood trial last spring for second-degree murder in the June 7, 2019, stabbing death of 51-year-old Robert Donaldson.

Williams admitted killing Donaldson, but argued he was too intoxicated by drugs to form the intent to commit murder.

Queen’s Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy said she accepted the evidence of a forensic psychiatrist who testified Williams was likely suffering from methamphetamine-induced psychosis at the time of the stabbing.

“I find that it is likely the accused was suffering from psychosis severe enough to effect his ability to form the specific intention to kill Mr. Donaldson,” McCarthy said. “Being in the throes of a drug-induced psychosis, his thinking was detached from the reality of the situation.”

Court heard at trial Donaldson and a friend were walking in Winnipeg, near the intersection of Sherbrook Street and Sara Avenue, shortly before 9 p.m., when they crossed paths with Williams and another man. Williams yelled at Donaldson before pulling a knife from his pants, and chased Donaldson and his friend north toward Sara Avenue.

Williams cut Davidson once in the ribs before a passing motorist tried to intervene and gave Donaldson and his friend a baseball bat and steering wheel club to defend themselves.

As Donaldson’s friend and the motorist tried to keep Williams at bay, Williams broke through their defences and stabbed Donaldson several more times, once fatally in the chest.

Witnesses provided first aid to Donaldson, but he died minutes later.

“It seemed like (Williams) just wanted to kill someone,” Donaldson’s friend, Carey Harvey, testified at trial.

After stabbing Donaldson, Williams walked away with the knife in his hand “like he was looking for another victim,” Harvey told court.

Another witness followed Williams in his car as he ran back to his Sherbrook Street apartment. The witness called police, who arrived minutes later and arrested Williams.

Williams testified he had been on a three-day, sleepless meth binge, when, just minutes before the attack, he snorted two more lines of meth and left his apartment with the idea of buying cigarettes. He claimed to have almost no memory of what came after.

“By all accounts, the attack on Mr. Donaldson was completely unprovoked and there is no evidence that the accused and Mr. Donaldson knew each other,” McCarthy said. “It was a tragic, brutal and senseless killing.”

In 2009, Williams, then 24, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for stabbing a man to death three years earlier, following a party at Hollow Water First Nation.

Court at the time heard Williams stabbed Leslie Moneyas five times, including four times in the back. He was granted statutory release in 2017.

Williams remains in custody. He will return to court for sentencing in April.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca