Man released from jail after murder conviction overturned

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This article was published 16/03/2023 (906 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man, whose conviction for killing a man when he was 16 was overturned on appeal, has been sentenced on a lesser charge and ordered released from jail.

The 22-year-old was convicted of first-degree murder in the January 2017 shooting death of 25-year-old Tyler Kirton. In 2020, he was sentenced as an adult to life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

The Manitoba Court of Appeal overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial after ruling the sentencing judge erred in admitting evidence obtained after police seized the teen’s cellphone — a seizure the court said arose from a statement police obtained from him that violated his Charter rights.

In December, the man — who has remained in custody since his arrest one day after the shooting — pleaded guilty as a youth to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

On Wednesday, King’s Bench Justice Ken Champagne agreed to a joint recommendation by Crown and defence lawyers that the man be sentenced to four years of conditional supervision in the community.

Under the joint recommendation, the period of conditional supervision is to be served under an Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision order. The program allows participants access to one-on-one counselling, occupational therapy, tutoring and other specialized services at a cost of $100,000 a year. The conditional supervision sentence includes court-ordered conditions such as obeying a curfew and reporting requirements.

Court was told the man, who was transferred to an adult prison when he turned 18, has not recently been fully committed to rehabilitative programming and little groundwork had been laid for his transition to the program, circumstances the judge likened to returning the man to the community “without a net.”

“I’m concerned that he has been in custody for six years” and has become “institutionalized… making it that much more challenging,” Champagne said.

Defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg said the man was committed to pleading guilty to the killing, despite Roitenberg’s advice he should fight the charge at trial.

“You pled guilty knowing you might have a defence to the charge,” Champagne said. “That tells me you are accepting responsibility and, more importantly, that you are remorseful for what you did, and I give you a lot of credit for that.”

According to an agreed statement of facts provided to court, the man and Kirton, who did not know each other, became involved in a dispute over social media, which escalated to the point they agreed to meet for a “consensual fight.”

After agreeing they would not take weapons, Kirton, in the company of two acquaintances, drove to the man’s home on Thames Avenue. The man was waiting outside in a car with a .22-calibre rifle.

Kirton was standing outside when the man got out of his car, pulled out the rifle and fired what was described in court as a “warning shot” at the ground near Kirton’s feet. The man fired a second shot, striking Kirton in the chest.

Kirton stumbled back to his car and collapsed as the man ran away.

One of Kirton’s companions recorded the shooting on his cellphone.

According to the agreed statement of facts, “the shooting was not planned.”

Champagne urged the man to take advantage of all the supports that are offered to him after he is released.

“You will be provided opportunities other youth don’t necessarily get, but you will see it as punishment,” Champagne said. “If you view it like that, you are going to end up back in that (prisoner’s) box.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca