Judge rules jealousy-fuelled axe slaying on First Nation was first-degree murder

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This article was published 25/11/2024 (412 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

From the moment he held his girlfriend captive to hours later, when he fatally attacked Darius Harper with an axe, Jon Hastings’ actions all pointed to his guilt of first-degree murder, a judge ruled Monday.

“The common-sense and, indeed, only reasonable inference here, based on all the evidence is that the accused intended to kill the deceased, and the preparatory steps he took… demonstrate the deliberation and planning taken to bring about his intention to kill the deceased,” said King’s Bench Justice Vic Toews.

The mandatory sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Hastings will be formally sentenced at a later date.

Hastings didn’t dispute killing Harper, who he mistakenly believed had been seeing his girlfriend, but argued at trial he should be found guilty of manslaughter.

Court heard testimony at trial that Hastings, 32, and his then-girlfriend were at his Wasagamack First Nation home on May 9, 2022, when he started accusing the woman of cheating on him, eventually fixating on Harper, 27.

Hastings, the 35-year-old woman testified, tied her wrists together with packing tape and slashed her face, arms and legs with a filleting knife and axe as he demanded to know who she was seeing “behind his back.”

Hastings held the woman captive for hours in the home, described in court as a shed, locking the door from the outside when he left briefly to get a cigarette.

Some hours later, convinced the woman had been seeing Harper, Hastings showed her a message he had allegedly sent Harper in an effort to lure him to his home.

“All we have to do is wait for (Harper) to come over,” the woman testified Hastings told her, before adding he said he was going to hit Harper “worser” than he did her.

Sometime later, Hastings saw Harper walking outside and beckoned him over to the shed.

Hastings struck Harper in the head with an axe as soon as he walked in the door, the woman testified.

The woman said she heard Harper say “please” one time as Hastings continued to attack him with the axe and a knife and beat him for 20 minutes.

Hastings said he was “going to let him bleed out” and told him “nobody was going to touch or bother what’s mine,” the woman testified.

When Harper died, Hastings said, “Look — he’s already gone” and started laughing, the woman said.

As worried community members were wondering about the woman’s whereabouts, Hastings released her and told her to return in an hour or he would harm her children. The woman was walking along the road when her father drove by and picked her up. Police were contacted a short time later.

RCMP arrived at Hastings’ home to find Harper’s body wrapped in plastic.

Defence lawyer Steve Brennan conceded Hastings was guilty of forcible confinement and aggravated assault regarding the woman, but argued a case could be made for manslaughter in Harper’s death.

Brennan said the woman’s testimony that Hastings had been taking pills prior to the killing and evidence a crack pipe and drug paraphernalia had been found in the home suggest he was intoxicated at the time.

Toews said there was “no air of reality” to an argument Hastings was in a state of advanced intoxication at the time of the killing.

“The evidence, in whole or in part, does not suggest the accused was impaired by alcohol or drugs… or that he acted instinctively in the sudden excitement of the moment without thinking about the consequences of what he did,” Toews said. “I find he meant to kill the deceased, and he did so.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca