Killer pleads guilty in jealousy-sparked 2022 fatal stabbing

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This article was published 18/03/2024 (590 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man has admitted responsibility for a jealousy-fuelled killing committed while he was on bail for an assault on a city bus driver.

Tracayne Marsden pleaded guilty Monday to second-degree murder in the October 2022 killing of 27-year-old Creedence Justin Beardy.

Marsden, 23, will be sentenced at a later date. The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

Court heard the killing occurred just days after Beardy struck up a flirtation with Marsden’s then-girlfriend, who Marsden believed was pregnant with his child.

Two days before he was killed, Beardy sent Marsden’s girlfriend flirtatious messages, asking if she wanted to “hang out,” Crown attorney Nicole Roch told court.

Beardy and the woman were socializing at a female friend’s Kate Street apartment in the early morning hours of Oct. 1 when Marsden rushed through the apartment door, saw Beardy and became immediately enraged, Roch said.

The two men exchanged several blows before Marsden pulled a knife from his waistband and stabbed Beardy seven times in the upper body.

Marsden’s girlfriend pulled the two men apart, opened the front door and told Beardy to run before hiding in a bedroom with her friend, Roch said. When the women exited the bedroom a half-hour later, Marsden was gone.

Beardy walked several blocks before collapsing near the intersection of Cumberland Avenue and Sherbrook Street, where a passerby found him unconscious and called 911.

Marsden wasn’t arrested until Oct. 14, 10 days after his girlfriend’s mother called 911 to complain that Marsden had been visiting their apartment.

“That guy that killed that person there on Kate Street is back at my place,” she told 911. “I don’t know why you guys can’t arrest him.”

Interviewed by police, Marsden admitted his involvement, saying he attacked Beardy “out of jealousy,” and “did not intend to kill Beardy, only to hurt him,” Roch said.

At the time of his arrest, Marsden was on bail after being charged with assaulting a Winnipeg Transit driver with bear spray.

Marsden was granted bail May 4, 2022, following a hearing before provincial court Judge Brian Corrin and ordered to reside at the Behavioural Health Foundation treatment centre in St. Norbert.

Court records show he was charged with absconding from the treatment centre July 18, 2022, less than three months before the killing.

Marsden was granted bail the previous March on charges involving the thefts of thousands of dollars in merchandise from two city clothing stores while armed with a machete, but remained in custody for the alleged assault on the bus driver.

The Crown opposed Marsden’s release on the assault charge, arguing he had a lengthy history of disobeying court orders.

“I know he is going to be proposing release to a residential treatment program, but that doesn’t matter if he isn’t going to follow it,” Myskiw said. Marsden “poses a real and present danger to members of the public.”

Marsden pleaded guilty last March to assaulting the bus driver with a weapon and was sentenced to nine months in jail.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca