Man pleads guilty to manslaughter, admits stabbing victim in 2021 North End group assault

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This article was published 20/01/2023 (1323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man accused in the stabbing death of a 28-year-old man on a North End street in 2021 has pleaded guilty for his involvement.

Felix Bernard Chief, 28, was assaulted in the intersection of Burrows Avenue and Aikins Street on Nov. 7 that year just before 2 a.m. Winnipeg police were called to the area for a report of a male being assaulted and found him unresponsive. Chief was taken in critical condition to hospital, but was pronounced dead.

He had been stabbed in the chest five times.

Jordan Rae Myerion, 24, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter but not guilty to second-degree murder in front of Court of King’s Bench Justice Vic Toews Friday morning, who accepted the plea.

“I understand that what you’re admitting is that on Nov. 7, 2021, while intoxicated, you were involved in a group assault against Felix Chief, then at some point during that assault, you stabbed Felix Chief up to five times causing him to die?” asked defence lawyer Aaron Braun.

“Myerion said he agreed.

Braun then asked whether his level of intoxication at the time means he does not have a full recollection of the slaying, to which Myerion also agreed.

Crown prosecutor Carrie Ritchot and Myerion’s lawyers, Braun and Candace Olson, have not agreed on a recommended sentence. The maximum possible sentence is life in prison.

Myerion is to be sentenced April 19 in the Court of King’s Bench after the completion of a pre-sentence report with a Gladue component in the next five weeks. Gladue reports consider the circumstances and experiences of Indigenous people who’ve committed an offence — Myerion is a member of Long Plain First Nation.

He remains in custody.

Nicholas Brett MacDonald, 27, Jeremy Aaron Scott, 26, and Aaron Brendan Swampy, 26, are each charged with a count of manslaughter for their alleged involvement in Chief’s death. All were arrested in December 2021.

A King’s Bench jury trial for the three remaining accused is scheduled for Nov. 6-30.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera