Twelve years for killing homeless man

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This article was published 23/06/2023 (846 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 27-year-old Winnipeg man has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for the fatal shooting of a stranger outside a Kennedy Street apartment complex.

Michael Theodore Jay Edwards was charged with second-degree murder in the June 2021 killing of 48-year-old Marlon Chamorro-Gonzales, but entered a guilty plea mid-trial to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

“No one other than the accused knows why he pulled out a gun and shot Mr. Chamorro-Gonzales,” said King’s Bench Justice Herbert Rempel, noting the two men had not met prior to the killing and had no shared history.

“This was an impulsive act of extreme violence that not only placed the victim at risk, but also anybody in close proximity to the accused,” Rempel said.

Court was told Chamorro-Gonzales, who was from Central America and was homeless, had gathered with several other people on a Kennedy Street boulevard when Edwards and a female companion came out of a nearby apartment building at around midnight.

The woman testified Edwards was walking behind her when she heard him arguing with someone, and then a gunshot. Edwards and the woman ran to a nearby hotel where they had rented a room for the night.

Police tracked a trail to the hotel sometime later and seized a firearm and ammunition from the couple’s room.

Edwards has convictions for armed robbery and weapon offences. At the time of the shooting, he was bound by two court orders prohibiting him from possessing weapons.

Court heard Edwards has a family history of residential school involvement and alcoholism and spent much of his childhood in foster care.

Edwards received credit for time served, reducing his remaining sentence to just over nine and a half years.

— Staff