Seven-year-old witness to beginning of mother’s fatal beating fears father will return to kill her, court hears

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This article was published 23/05/2024 (471 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A child who witnessed the onset of her father’s fatal attack on her mother lives in fear her father will return to kill her, a court has heard.

“Me and my brother were jumping on the bed screaming for help,” the now-seven-year-old girl said in a victim impact statement provided to court Thursday at a sentencing hearing for 31-year-old Justin Robinson.

“I’m scared that my dad will find out where I am,” the girl said. “I am scared that my dad will hurt me, and I don’t want to pass away like momma Tessa.”

Robinson pleaded guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder for a 45-minute-long assault on May 30, 2022 that took the life of Tessa Perry, a 31-year-old mother of four.

The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 10 years. At Thursday’s hearing, prosecutors urged Court of King’s Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg to set Robinson’s period of parole ineligibility at 16 years. The defence recommended 14 years.

“There is an excessively high public-safety concern presented by this case,” said Crown attorney Zita DeSousa, noting Robinson had two prior convictions for assaulting Perry, one when she was six months pregnant.

At the time of the fatal attack, Robinson was on probation for stabbing a man who intervened in his attack on another woman.

“This incident represents another Indigenous daughter, sister and mother who was erased from their family,” DeSousa said. “The sentence must reflect the strong condemnation of this type of violence.”

Last March, when Robinson entered his guilty plea, Crown attorney Danielle Simard told court that on the night of the fatal beating, Perry had gone grocery shopping, and when she returned to her Maples-area home at about 9 p.m. Robinson “became enraged with (her) for some reason.”

Robinson assaulted Perry in front of two of her young children — one his daughter, the other Perry’s son from a previous relationship — before putting them in an upstairs bedroom and resuming the attack. He hit her with a frying pan and stabbed her several times with a paring knife. Perry ran outside where witnesses saw Robinson strike her 15 to 20 times in the head and face with a table leg that had an exposed screw.

A witness placed the first call to 911 at 9:38 p.m.

“So, from beginning to end of the incident was just under 45 minutes,” Simard said.

Robinson dropped the table leg and was described by witnesses as “casually walking away from the scene,” she said.

Perry and Robinson were both from Thompson. Family members previously told the Free Press that Perry moved to Winnipeg to better her life, a sentiment echoed by one of her daughters in a victim impact statement DeSousa read out in court.

“All she wanted was to start over so we could have a nice life,” the 14-year-old girl said.

“I will forever miss how she would cheer me up so fast when she gave me hugs and told me she loved me and was able to make me laugh, no matter how I was feeling.”

The girl said she is haunted by thoughts she might have saved her mom had she been at home during the attack.

“Each day I think about this and just wish I could go back in time and tell myself to stay home,” she said.

Court heard Robinson had a “chaotic” childhood marked by neglect, parental substance abuse, sexual abuse and time in foster care.

None of that excuses what he did, said Perry’s great aunt, Elizabeth Perry.

“There are many people who were raised with family violence and alcoholism; I can say I was one of them, but that did not give me the right to hurt anyone else and take their life,” she said. “That was the choice of a coward.”

Defence lawyer Mike Cook offered no explanation for what sparked Robinson’s attack.

While Robinson has a history of drug and alcohol abuse, “he is not blaming drugs and alcohol for what happened that day,” Cook said. “He is taking full responsibility.”

Robinson offered a brief apology to Perry’s family members in court, telling them he was “sorry for ruining your lives.”

“I will work very hard to become a better human being,” he said. “I want to to say sorry to the children. They didn’t deserve any of this.”

Greenberg will sentence Robinson June 13.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca