Man pleads guilty to manslaughter in fatal assault of new immigrant

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This article was published 22/08/2022 (1197 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man has pleaded guilty to manslaughter after his assault of a recent immigrant outside of a Higgins Avenue hotel led to the victim’s death in hospital last August.

At a hearing Monday in front of Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery, Crown prosecutor Mike Himmelman read from an agreed statement of facts, detailing the death of Ifa Germosa, 41, on Aug. 17 last year.

Accused Norman Richard Pruden, 37, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder, as he had been originally charged, but guilty to manslaughter.

The victim had recently come to Canada, having walked across the border from the United States in late 2020.

Pruden was living in a room at the Salvation Army at 180 Henry Ave., when he walked with a crutch to the beer vendor at the nearby Mount Royal Hotel to purchase liquor on the night of Aug. 16.

The two had never met before, and Pruden was sober when he spoke to Germosa inside the hotel’s vendor at around 10:51 p.m.

“After the deceased left (the vendor), the accused said to someone, ‘Hey, you want me to beat him up? I’ll beat him up for you…. You want me to f—k him up? That guy, the black guy. You want me to beat him?’” Himmelman said, citing video and audio surveillance.

“The accused, who was in possession of an aluminum crutch, followed the deceased outside, walked up behind him and struck him on the back of the head near the ear with the crutch. As a result, the deceased fell to the ground.”

The assault wasn’t captured on video, but two witnesses who identified Pruden in photo lineups saw him strike the victim, who made a noise as he fell to the ground.

Pruden walked with his crutch back to his room on Henry Avenue while Germosa laid on the ground unconscious, where Winnipeg Police Service officers found him in medical distress.

“EMS personnel rushed the deceased to the Health Sciences Centre where a CT scan of the head revealed extensive fracturing of the base of the skull and intercranial hemorrhage,” Himmelman said.

“It was determined that there would be no benefit from neurosurgical intervention and the victim died from blunt head trauma… at 6:41 p.m. on Aug. 17 2021.”

Police officers spotted Pruden outside the Salvation Army that day and arrested him. The investigators also executed a search warrant on his room, seizing the damaged, bent crutch. In an interview with police, Pruden denied committing homicide.

“He acknowledges that his unlawful act was objectively dangerous and resulted in injuries which killed the deceased,” Himmelman said.

“However, given the nature of the assault, he lacked the necessary state of mind for murder.”

Lanchbery accepted Pruden’s guilty plea. He will be sentenced later this year.

The Mount Royal Hotel was the site of violence prior to Germosa’s death and afterward.

Joshua Robert Jeromiah Hansen, 29, was stabbed in the chest in the hotel’s parking lot on Aug. 6, 2020 and later died in hospital. A now-19-year-old man was sentenced as a youth to three years less a day for manslaughter in his death earlier this month.

At 3:05 a.m. last Wednesday, Aug. 17, 40-year-old Brian Edward Anderson was stabbed outside of the hotel. Police officers performed CPR, but he was pronounced dead in hospital. Homicide investigators have not yet announced any arrests in his slaying, the 32nd in Winnipeg this year.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera