Second trial for 2019 murder ends in life sentence, no parole for 10 years

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This article was published 17/11/2023 (707 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Four years after he stabbed a stranger to death on a Winnipeg street, Rodney Williams admitted Friday he was guilty of murder and was sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 10 years.

Williams was high on methamphetamine and armed with a knife the evening of June 7, 2019, when he crossed paths with 51-year-old Robert Donaldson near the West Broadway intersection of Sherbrook Street and Sara Avenue.

After an exchange of words and foot chase, Williams repeatedly stabbed Donaldson, once fatally in the chest.

“The circumstances of the offence here are shocking and frightening,” said King’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg. “The attack on Mr. Donaldson was brutal, prolonged and dogged.”

Donaldson is the second man Williams has been convicted of killing and Friday’s hearing marked the second time he has been sentenced for Donaldson’s slaying.

Williams stood trial for Donaldson’s death in 2021, pleading not guilty to second-degree murder. A judge later found Williams guilty of the lesser offence of manslaughter, ruling he was in the grip of a meth psychosis and could not form the intent to kill.

In June 2022, Williams was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for seven years.

The Crown appealed Williams’s acquittal on the original charge.

In February, the Manitoba Court of Appeal ordered a new trial, ruling the sentencing judge focused her decision on the issue of meth psychosis and not on whether Williams could have foreseen stabbing Donaldson could kill him.

“By his guilty plea, he admits, notwithstanding his level of intoxication, he had the requisite intent for murder,” Greenberg said Friday.

The new sentence came by way of a plea bargain that included a Crown and defence agreement to recommend Williams be allowed to apply for parole after serving the minimum period of 10 years in prison.

It provides “certainty and finality” to Donaldson’s family, and spares them the prospect of another trial and the possibility of a lesser sentence or outright acquittal, Crown attorney Chantal Boutin told court.

Court heard at trial Donaldson and another man were walking together along Sherbrook Street when they crossed paths with Williams and another man around 8:40 p.m. Williams yelled at Donaldson before pulling a knife from his pants and chasing Donaldson and his friend north toward Sara Avenue.

Williams cut Donaldson once in the ribs before a passing motorist tried to intervene and gave Donaldson and his friend a baseball bat and steering wheel anti-theft device (club) to defend themselves.

As Donaldson’s friend and the motorist tried to keep Williams at bay, Williams broke through their defences and stabbed Donaldson several more times.

Two witnesses provided first aid, but the man died within minutes.

Williams returned to his Sherbrook Street apartment and police arrested him a short time later.

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In 2009, Williams, then 24, was sentenced to 18 years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for stabbing a man to death three years earlier, after a party at Hollow Water First Nation.

Court was told Williams stabbed Leslie Moneyas five times, including four times in the back. He was granted statutory release in 2017.

“If you are going to tell me how remorseful you are — don’t,” Donaldson’s mother, Carol Mitchell, wrote in a victim-impact statement read out in court Friday. “You were given a second chance and look what happened.”

Donaldson’s life was “snuffed out by a selfish, paranoid, drug user,” his aunt, Megan Brisco, said in another statement provided to court. “Who knew that walking down the street would be a death sentence?”

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.

Every piece of reporting Dean produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.