Judge orders mental fitness assessment for Carman man accused in family’s slayings

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This article was published 26/02/2024 (592 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A judge has ordered a man arrested in the killing of five family members earlier this month to undergo a mental fitness assessment.

Provincial court Judge Don Slough ordered the assessment for Ryan Manoakeesick after a brief hearing Monday morning.

Manoakeesick, 29, appeared in court via video from the Winnipeg Remand Centre. Manoakeesick, wearing a sleeveless white shirt and appearing to be in handcuffs, did not address court.

Defence lawyer Morgan Lawrence requested the assessment, telling court she and co-counsel Laura Robinson had met with Manoakeesik multiple times in the past two weeks and had “concerns” about his mental fitness.

Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft initially resisted ordering the assessment, telling court prosecutors and defence lawyers had yet to see police disclosure related to Manoakeesick’s arrest the day of the killings.

“I’m not sure this assessment needs to be made right away,” Vanderhooft said. “It can be made on an application by the defence… but there has to be some basis for ordering that, which I haven’t heard.”

Slough ordered that the assessment, which will determine Manoakeesick’s fitness to provide instruction to his lawyers and stand trial, be completed within 30 days. Fitness assessments are usually ordered to be completed within as little as five days, with an option to extend the deadline if necessary.

Vanderhooft said a five-day window to complete the assessment was unrealistic given Manoakeesick will have to be moved from the remand centre to complete it. Fitness assessments are usually completed at Health Sciences Centre’s secure psychiatric unit.

Slough agreed, saying it was unlikely a fitness assessment could be completed so quickly “given the gravity of the charges.”

Manoakeesick’s next court date is scheduled for March 7.

He is charged with five counts of first-degree murder in the Feb. 11 killings of his common-law partner, 30-year-old Amanda Clearwater, their three children — two-month old Isabella, four-year-old Jayven and six-year-old Bethany — and Clearwater’s 17-year-old cousin Myah-Lee Gratton.

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All five victims and Manoakeesick lived together in Carman, about 75 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

Clearwater’s death was initially reported as a hit-and-run incident at about 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 11. Her body was found in a ditch next to Highway 3, about seven kilometres south of Carman.

The three children were declared dead near a burning vehicle on Provincial Road 248, about 70 km north of Carman, at about 10 a.m. Manoakeesick was arrested near the vehicle, which RCMP said he had pulled his children from before being arrested.

Myah-Lee’s body was found inside the family home.

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.