Hearing date related to jail suicide set

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This article was published 15/09/2023 (762 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The provincial courts have set a hearing date to determine who can participate in the inquest into the death of a Manitoba sex offender who hanged himself in Stony Mountain prison in 2019.

Timothy Koltusky, 34, of Winnipeg, was found hanging by a ligature made of cellophane in his cell in the federal prison north of Winnipeg early on March 12, 2019, the province said.

He was pronounced dead at 1:25 a.m. The medical examiner’s office deemed his death a suicide.

Koltusky, who had legally changed his name from Kevin Scott Steppan, was serving a two-year, 11-month sentence for breaching his long-term supervision order.

He had previously been convicted of sexual assault with a weapon, among other offences, committed against sex trade workers in Winnipeg.

The Manitoba Integrated High Risk Sex Offender Unit had previously described Koltusky as a high risk to reoffend.

The province’s chief medical examiner called an inquest, as is required under the Fatal Inquiries Act, to examine the circumstances and events leading to Koltusky’s death to determine what could be done to prevent similar deaths in the future.

A provincial judge will decide who can participate in the process at the upcoming hearing, which is scheduled for Oct. 6.

Anyone who wants to be granted standing at the hearing must contact the inquest lawyer, Joel Refvik, at 204-914-4623 or joel.refvik@gov.mb.ca by Oct. 1.