No parole for 20 years for ‘ultimately senseless’ 2022 murder

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 25/01/2024 (649 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Family members of Doris Lydia Trout watched mournfully in a Winnipeg courtroom Thursday as a woman pleaded guilty to her “senseless” slaying nearly two years ago.

Originally from God’s Lake First Nation, Trout was found dead in the sixth-floor stairwell of a Manitoba Housing complex at 444 Kennedy St. in Winnipeg, at 4:18 a.m., May 19, 2022, by a security guard doing his rounds.

The body of the 25-year-old mother of four was found face-down, Crown prosecutor Kaley Tschetter told court Thursday, with her hands zip-tied behind her back. Her neck showed marks indicating she had been strangled with string.

She had gone missing a week earlier.

“Ms. Trout’s killing remains unexplained and ultimately senseless,” Tschetter told Court of King’s Bench Justice Brenda Keyser.

Leah Carol Clifton, 36, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a plea bargain worked out between the Crown and defence lawyer Pam Smith. Clifton was sentenced to life in prison, with no parole eligibility for 20 years.

She had initially been charged — along with co-accused Meagan Beaulieu — with first-degree murder.

Beaulieu, 29, is still before the court and presumed innocent. Her jury trial is slated for January 2025.

Tschetter, reading from a statement of facts, outlined what led up to Trout’s death.

The statement was largely based on Beaulieu’s confession to Winnipeg police, in which she claimed she was fearful of Clifton (who was wanted by police for an alleged role in a separate, earlier killing) and followed along because of it.

Smith took issue with the statement, telling the judge Clifton’s contention is she and Beaulieu were in on the slaying together.

The three women had been at a home on Juno Street on May 18, 2022, with two men, before Trout left to get drugs for Clifton. The others remained in the home to use drugs.

When Trout returned, Tschetter said, she shouted Clifton’s name, angering the woman, due to her being sought by the authorities. Trout later changed in the living room, angering Clifton more.

Clifton, already upset over her boyfriend’s recent death, then received a video of him being shot and killed and became “very, very aggressive,” Tschetter said.

The trio of women then left Juno Street to collect drug debts at the Kennedy Street apartment on behalf of one of the men in the house, the Crown said.

Clifton was given a gun.

Beaulieu claimed to police she had implored Trout to leave, but she did not go. In the apartment complex, video collected by homicide detectives showed Beaulieu and Clifton hitting the smaller woman at various points, before they entered the sixth-floor stairwell, where no camera was located.

There, Tschetter told court, Beaulieu hit Trout, before Clifton put her on the floor with her hands on her back. Clifton pulled the gun out and planned to shoot her, before discovering it was a pellet gun.

Beaulieu claimed Clifton then directed her to tie Trout’s hoodie strings and pull them tightly, while Clifton placed her hand over Trout’s mouth, before Clifton took over pulling the strings. Trout stopped moving and Clifton fled, leaving behind a knife, which Beaulieu picked up and fled with.

The pair returned to Juno Street.

Trout’s slaying was unprovoked and senseless, with no clear motive or insight into why it occurred, court was told.

The Crown and defence jointly recommended Clifton be sentenced to life without the ability to apply for parole for 20 years, above the minimum sentence for second-degree murder of life with no parole eligibility of 10 years.

Keyser accepted the recommendation.

Trout’s uncle, Zach Trout, read out impact statements from her four children, ages three to 11, about the loss of their mother, as well one from her home community.

“I know I’ll never see my mother again… Why would they do that to my mom?” he said, reading one of the children’s statements. “She was the best mom. She was caring.”

Smith told court Clifton, a mother of two with a prior criminal record of only property crimes and court breaches, had been using methamphetamine and down (a street drug containing fentanyl) daily.

She began doing so after losing her sobriety in 2020, amid the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic, while trying to regain custody of her children, the defence said.

Smith said Clifton’s memory of the time is fuzzy and she cannot explain the offence, but has expressed deep remorse.

Clifton apologized to Trout’s family in the courtroom: “I just want to say I’m sorry for everything… I’m sorry for the pain I caused to everyone, especially the children.”

Clifton and Amos Joe Kematch, 29, are accused in the slaying of Heather Marie Cheyane Beardy, 26, who was found dead Feb. 2, 2022, in an apartment at 485 Furby St.

Their jury trial is scheduled for May.

Police previously said the two killings were not related.

A third suspect in Beardy’s death had her second-degree murder charge stayed in October 2022, after a witness implicating the woman died.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca