Man charged with murder in fatal January apartment fire

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This article was published 28/03/2023 (939 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg police homicide detectives have arrested a man accused in a woman’s death following a fire in a West End apartment in January — the city’s first slaying of the year.

Star Alicia Thomas, 23, was found with serious injuries inside the apartment fire at 741 Sargent Ave. on Jan. 3. Police have not released details on the cause of the victim’s death, but have called it suspicious.

Officers had been called to the blaze in the Adanac Apartments at about 9:30 a.m. that day.

Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service responders, who arrived about a half-hour earlier, had taken the victim to hospital in critical condition, where she later died.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s homicide unit then took over the investigation. In January, police said those officers were working with the fire service to investigate the circumstances of the blaze.

On Monday, police arrested Joey Robertson Lecoy, 26. Police said Tuesday Lecoy and the victim knew each other prior to the slaying.

He’s been charged with second-degree murder and five counts of possession of a firearm, restricted/prohibited weapon or ammunition contrary to prohibition orders.

Lecoy was in custody, police said. He was due in court Tuesday.

Lecoy has past been convicted for weapons offences, violent offences and a slew of administrative breaches, court records show.

In December 2021, he pleaded guilty in provincial court in front of provincial court Judge Stacy Cawley to a charge of robbery with a weapon and breaching a probation order, namely that he not possess a weapon.

On July 28, 2020, Lecoy had been high on methamphetamine with a female co-accused and an unknown man, when he brandished a knife at a victim to rob him of his wallet, backpack and jewelry, court heard.

Just after midnight that night, the victim left a Pembina Highway gym and noticed the trio in a nearby hotel’s parking lot, court heard.

The two men began to follow him and the woman followed behind, before Lecoy stood in front of the victim with the knife, demanding money and anything else he had, Crown prosecutor Shane Smith told court.

The victim ran across the street before the robbers got his cellphone, as was demanded, and called for Winnipeg police, who arrived and arrested Lecoy, who was found with the knife, and the woman.

Court heard Lecoy’s parents died while he was young and was in child and family services care for most of his life. He has status with Sagkeeng First Nation, but had little connection to the community because of his chaotic young life.

He has lived in Winnipeg most of his life but sometimes without housing or living transiently, defence lawyer Barry Walker said.

Lecoy told Cawley that he began to use meth in 2016, but hoped to get help getting off the drug, including a plan to attend treatment at the Behavioural Health Foundation in Winnipeg after he was released from prison. He told the judge he had robbed the victim that night to feed his addiction.

Cawley agreed with a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence and sentenced Lecoy to 2 1/2 years in prison, less the time he had already been jailed.

Lecoy was also given a 10-year order prohibiting him from possessing weapons and ordered to give a DNA sample to authorities.

Court records show he had also been given a lifetime weapons prohibition order in 2020 after he was convicted of an assault with a weapon.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera