Accused in West Broadway slaying has violent record

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This article was published 14/08/2023 (806 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The third man accused of a West Broadway slaying has a violent past that includes beating his nine-month pregnant girlfriend in front of a child and being armed with a knife while arguing with a Walmart employee.

Nehemiah Jarren Fehr, 22, of Winnipeg, was arrested Thursday and has been charged with second-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of George Nickolas Demos, 50, on Aug. 5. He has been detained in custody.

Jonathan Michael Gladue, 23, and a 17-year-old male, who were arrested on the day of the killing, are charged with second-degree murder and remain in custody.

The Winnipeg Police Service said no further arrests are expected. A police spokesman said Demos did not know the three accused.

Fehr was scheduled to appear in court Monday on the murder charge as well as charges of robbery and possession of a weapon related to an incident in early July.

He has been convicted of at least seven violent offences, court records show, and was on supervised probation and subject to a 10-year court-ordered weapons ban at the time of Demos’s killing.

His convictions include robbery, assault with a weapon and possessing weapons.

Robbery, assault convictions

Fehr most recently appeared in court in May, when he pleaded guilty to possessing a weapon dangerous to the public peace in connection to an incident at St. Vital mall in April.

Court was told he got into an argument with a Walmart employee on April 2, then went to the parking lot, where he was spotted holding a six-inch knife. He disputed the employee’s claim that he was waving the knife around in the parking lot.

Security guards called police. He was arrested and the knife was seized. He told officers he carried the knife for protection after getting kicked out of his girlfriend’s place, court was told.

He told Judge Cindy Sholdice on May 30 that he was “paranoid” after being kicked out, but did not intend to hurt anyone. She sentenced him to time served.

On Feb. 27, he pleaded guilty to assaulting his now-former girlfriend, who was 39 weeks’ pregnant with their child, on Dec. 17, 2022.

Court was told a neighbour of the victim had called police after hearing an argument.

The victim was found crying in the lobby, with her four-year-old sister in tow, at about 12:30 a.m.

She told police she was babysitting in a different location when Fehr told her that he planned to retrieve his belongings from her apartment. She rushed home to stop him from entering her suite.

He arrived a short time later and threatened to kick in the door.

She let him in to avoid a noise complaint and he beat her as her sister cried and begged him to stop, court was told.

She fell to the ground and he hit her again after she got up to leave. He followed her into the elevator, where their argument was overheard by the neighbour.

He was given 12 months of supervised probation in addition to the time he was held in jail before pleading guilty.

‘George didn’t deserve this’

Fehr was born in Morden and grew up in the area, as well as in Saskatchewan. His mother abandoned him when he was 15.

Court was told his family has suffered due to colonization because his grandmother attended day school. He has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and poor impulse control, his lawyer told court.

Demos was found in a lane behind the 200 block of Furby Street at about 3:20 a.m. He was taken to hospital in critical condition, where he died.

Police allege that one of the three accused was involved in a confrontation with seven people (two males and five females) in the drive-thru of the McDonald’s restaurant at Portage Avenue and Sherbrook Street at 1:25 a.m. on the day of the slaying.

Police have asked for anyone with video related to the homicide or the altercation at the restaurant to call the homicide unit at 204-986-6508 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 204-786-8477.

“George didn’t deserve this,” Shawn Zabolotny, a longtime friend of the victim’s, told the Free Press last week. “He was a soul that should have stayed on this earth until his time.”

Demos had worked as a janitor and was a fan of music and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, his friend said.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca