Court of appeal upholds acquittal in 2019 stabbing death

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This article was published 20/04/2023 (1262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba’s highest court has upheld the acquittal of a Winnipeg woman charged with second-degree murder in the stabbing death of a 25-year-old mother of four.

Shaylynne Hunter died May 25, 2019, after she was stabbed 21 times outside her Simcoe home.

Diane Tamara King, 22, and co-accused Tasha Laquette, 26, stood trial for the killing in 2021, and were acquitted after a judge ruled King was defending Laquette and herself when she stabbed Hunter.

The Crown appealed King’s acquittal, arguing King’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey misapplied the legal test for self-defence.

In a written decision released Thursday, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ruled McKelvey did error in applying the test for self-defence, but “those errors had no bearing on the verdict.”

“On a proper application of the test, the trial judge’s finding still stands: the Crown has failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was not acting in self-defence,” Justice Jennifer Pfuetzner wrote on behalf of the appeal court.

Court heard evidence at trial Hunter and King had been involved in a heated dispute inside Hunter’s house, when Hunter attacked the two accused outside with a metal pipe.

In a lengthy Winnipeg Police Service video interview recorded three days after the killing, King said she and Laquette were leaving the house party when Hunter came up behind her and struck her with a metal pipe without warning.

King said Laquette tried to protect her and was struck in the head with the pipe. As Laquette dropped to the ground, King saw Hunter drop a knife, she said.

“I thought Shaylynne was going to pick up that knife,” she said. “My first reaction was to pick it up. And as she was swinging the pole, I must have just swung it once without even looking and I must have hit her.

“It was either me or my friend going to die… or her, and it turned out to be her.”

Later in the interview, King estimated she swung the knife at Hunter “three or four times.”

A toxicology report revealed Hunter had a blood-alcohol reading of .190 when she died, more than twice the legal limit for driving, and had consumed cocaine.

Family members present at the party, as well as Hunter’s common-law partner, testified Hunter could become violent and uncontrollable when she had consumed cocaine.

Court heard conflicting evidence as to who had the knife first, with one witness testifying they saw a knife earlier in King’s purse.

McKelvey said whether King was armed prior to the attack was not relevant to her finding King acted in self-defence.

Prosecutors argued the excessive number of stab or slashing wounds belied King’s claim she was acting in self-defence, and was not a reasonable response in the circumstances.

A pathologist testified all but three or four of Hunter’s knife wounds were superficial and she would not necessarily have been immediately incapacitated.

The trial heard evidence Hunter did not cease her attack on King and Laquette until King had stabbed and slashed her 21 times.

King’s response was “proportionate to the use or threat of force,” Pfuetzner said.

“It was only then that the deceased backed away with the bar in her hand,” she said.

“While the nature of the force used by the accused was certainly extreme, it strikes me that it was entirely proportional given that the deceased was completely out of control, was clearly a threat to the lives of both the accused and co-accused, and the options available to protect themselves were limited, to say the least.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca