‘Twenty years will never be enough’ Two men sentenced for killing man they thought was someone else By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 18, 2023

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This article was published 18/04/2023 (874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One after the other, family members told a Winnipeg court how they’d been devastated by the loss of Anthony Sinclair, who was shot dead on a North End street after he was mistaken for another man.

And one after the other, they asked the question for which there is no acceptable answer: Why?

“I would like to know why you guys killed my son?” said Theresa Sinclair, looking directly at Alex Genaille and Thunder Fontaine, who were seated in the prisoner’s box. “I have no remorse for them. Whatever happens behind the prison walls, they deserve what they get.”

Genaille, 25, and Fontaine, 23, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the December 2021 killing and were sentenced Tuesday to 20 years in prison.

“In my eyes, 20 years will never be enough,” Sinclair’s sister Cheryl Sinclair told court. “We will miss him every day and think to ourselves: why? You go to the store for a drink and you get killed? That didn’t have to happen to him.”

Sinclair, a father of six, was riding his bike on Stella Avenue near McGregor Street, on his way to a corner store to pick up a bottle of Pepsi when he crossed paths with Genaille and Fontaine, who were armed with a loaded shotgun and rifle.

An agreed statement of facts provided to court says Genaille “misidentified Sinclair as a male… that both Genaille and Sinclair were upset with based upon behaviour he had exhibited toward Genaille’s girlfriend.”

Genaille pulled out a rifle and shot Sinclair once in the back. After Sinclair fell to the ground, Fontaine pulled out his shotgun and fired one shot into the defenceless man’s abdomen. Genaille and Fontaine then walked away.

“In my eyes, 20 years will never be enough… We will miss him every day and think to ourselves: why? You go to the store for a drink and you get killed? That didn’t have to happen to him.”–Cheryl Sinclair

A short time later, Sinclair died in hospital.

Sinclair’s last words were: “I don’t want to die,” his sister Stephanie Sinclair told court.

“Those words will haunt me for the rest of my life,” she said.

Genaille and Fontaine were set to stand trial for second-degree murder in November, but pleaded guilty Monday to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Had the case gone to trial, jurors would have had to wrestle with the question of whether the men had the necessary intent to commit murder, Crown attorney Brent Davidson told King’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond.

Court heard both men have cognitive deficits and fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and both had consumed drugs and alcohol prior to the killing.

Genaille has been diagnosed with schizophrenia and experiences frequent hallucinations while Fontaine functions at the intellectual level of a six-year-old, Davidson said.

“Twenty years is not a low sentence,” he said. “These offenders have huge deficits. That does not excuse their behaviour… or reduce their risk to the public.”

The 20-year sentence was jointly recommended by prosecutors and defence lawyers and endorsed by Bond, who said the two men’s guilty pleas were recognized as genuine signs of remorse.

Bond told Sinclair’s family members that the court’s acceptance of the manslaughter pleas, as opposed to murder, “in no way diminishes the loss or harm suffered.”

“To say this was a tragic loss of life is an understatement,” she said. “That there was a mistaken identity makes it even more senseless.”

Genaille and Fontaine pleaded guilty to additional counts of robbery with a weapon for a carjacking committed less than one hour after they killed Sinclair. They were each sentenced to five years, to be served concurrent to their manslaughter sentence.

Outside court, family members described Sinclair as a dedicated family man who raised everyone’s spirits.

“He was so happy all the time, no matter what the situation was,” Cheryl Sinclair said. “He would make a joke about something to get people’s spirits up. If you were having a bad day and he showed up, you knew it was going to end with belly laughs.”

Anthony faced many of the same challenges as his killers, Stephanie Sinclair said. Anthony had fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, addiction issues and could not read or write.

“He had his own struggles and he didn’t want his kids to grow up like that,” she said. “He wanted his kids to know that even though you have struggles, you can make it in society.”

Fontaine remains before the court for a second killing committed two weeks before he shot Sinclair.

Forty-year-old Angus John Maple died after he was shot in a Mountain Avenue apartment on Nov. 24, 2021. Bond will rule next week whether Fontaine is guilty of second-degree murder or manslaughter in Maple’s death.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

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