Accused killer tells court he doesn’t recall stabbing girlfriend, apologizes to her family

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This article was published 26/10/2022 (1440 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Phoenix Maytwayashing didn’t deny stabbing his on-again, off-again girlfriend more than two dozen times, but told a Winnipeg courtroom this week he had no memory of the fatal attack.

Monica Chippeway, 35, died March 26, 2020, inside her Lake Manitoba First Nation home following a frenzied attack witnessed by her young daughter.

Maytwayashing, 23, is on trial for second-degree murder.

“There is no amount of apology that can change what happened,” Maytwayashing told Chippeway’s family members during testimony Tuesday. “The damage I caused… I am truly, truly sorry.”

Court has heard evidence Maytwayashing visited Chippeway’s house three times the day she was killed. Maytwayashing arrived the first time with a bottle of wine and Chippeway turned him away. He returned sometime later with a bag of groceries and was turned away again.

When Maytwayashing returned a third time, prosecutors allege, he stabbed Chippeway 32 times as her young daughter tried in vain to intervene before fleeing the house for help.

Maytwayashing testified he had been drinking with his roommate, an uncle and another man while running errands off reserve earlier in the day and had taken pills and cocaine before visiting Chippeway’s house that afternoon with a bottle of wine.

Maytwayashing said Chippeway didn’t like him showing up “under the influence” in front of her daughter and sent him home. Maytwayashing said he returned home and snorted two lines of cocaine, at which point “the drugs and alcohol started to take effect over my body.”

Maytwayashing said he left the house to get some air and walked to a field. The next thing he remembered was waking up covered in blood.

“I didn’t know where I was or what had happened,” he told court. “My first thought was that I might be hurt. I patted myself down and realized (the blood) wasn’t mine.”

Maytwayashing said he stumbled back to his house and told everyone inside “something along the lines of, ‘You need to get out; something has happened, I’m not sure what.’”

Maytwayashing had a shower, and when he was done discovered the house was on fire. He said he broke a window to let the smoke out and was pulled out of the house by his brother.

“Now, from my understanding, I know I set the fire,” he said.

Maytwayashing said someone pinned him to the ground until a band constable arrived and he was taken into custody.

Crown attorney Danielle Simard questioned Maytwayashing’s version of events, including a claim he had planned to spend the night at home, and alleged he exaggerated his drug and alcohol intake. Simard said social media messages Maytwayashing sent Chippeway showed he wanted to visit her.

Simard alleged the wine and groceries were all part of a pre-orchestrated plan to woo Chippeway.

“I’m going to suggest you were trying to get back into her good books,” Simard said.

The trial continues.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca