Accused serial killer loses bid for judge-alone trial

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This article was published 24/01/2024 (646 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Court of King’s Bench justice has rejected the bid by a Winnipeg man accused of the slayings of four Indigenous women to have his first-degree murder trial heard by a judge alone, rather than a jury.

Jeremy Anthony Michael Skibicki, 36, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the 2022 deaths of Marcedes Myran, 26, Morgan Harris, 39, Rebecca Contois, 24, and a fourth woman who has not yet been identified, who was given the name Buffalo Woman or Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, by the First Nations community.

She’s believed to have been Indigenous and in her 20s.

Winnipeg police — who first arrested Skibicki in May 2022 for his alleged role in Contois’s slaying before charging him in December 2022 with the other homicides — believe the remains of Myran and Harris are buried beneath tons of waste at the Prairie Green Landfill, a privately owned site north of the city.

Police recovered Contois’s partial remains, but detectives have not determined definitively where Buffalo Woman’s body may be.

Skibicki, who has pleaded not guilty to the charges, applied during the pre-trial phase in the Court of King’s Bench to have his trial heard by a judge only.

First-degree murder trials are automatically scheduled to be held before a jury. Crown prosecutors typically have to consent to such a request, but did not in Skibicki’s case.

Defence lawyers had tried to argue in front of Justice Glenn Joyal that requiring the Crown to consent to such a request is arbitrary, the Criminal Code provision mandating the requirement is unconstitutional and an accused offender should be allowed to choose a judge or jury, regardless of the charge.

First-degree murder is the most serious offence in the Criminal Code and community members have a “high interest” in trying such cases, constitutional law branch Crown attorney Charles Murray told Joyal at pre-trial.

In a written decision released Wednesday, Joyal dismissed the application, saying the Charter of Rights and Freedoms does not guarantee the right to a judge-alone trial, that courts have already upheld the Criminal Code provision Skibicki took issue with and the provision is not arbitrary, among other reasons.

“The accused has not led evidence suggesting that his right to a fair trial will be prejudiced in this case in the event that he is tried by judge and jury,” wrote Joyal. “The accused has also confirmed that he does not allege that the attorney general’s withheld consent amounts to an abuse of process.”

Skibicki’s trial is scheduled for April 29 to June 6.

The news Skibicki’s trial would be heard by a jury was a relief to Cambria Harris, daughter of Morgan Harris.

Cambria Harris and family attended Skibicki’s pre-trial in November, and called it “tough” to watch the court decide how the case would proceed.

“We’re overly ecstatic and over the moon that they’re pushing forward with a jury, because it’s important to utilize and have as many different opinions as possible. And when you offer those many different opinions, it gives a woman a better chance of having their voice heard,” she said Wednesday.

Knowing the case will be presented to a jury gives her hope Skibicki will be found guilty in the deaths of her mother and the three other women, she said.

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The Harris and Myran families have led ongoing calls for the various levels of government to support a search of Prairie Green.

In December 2022, Winnipeg police said they had decided not to dig at the site, given the time that had passed since the slayings and the amount of material that had since been deposited.

The NDP government recently reiterated its commitment to search the Prairie Green Landfill after being criticized for moving too slowly on the recovery effort.

— with files from Malak Abas

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Erik Pindera
Reporter

Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020.  Read more about Erik.

Every piece of reporting Erik 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.