Man admits he terrorized woman, then threw her into the trash

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This article was published 20/02/2025 (228 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man has admitted he subjected an intellectually vulnerable woman to hours of terror and violence and put her bound body into a garbage bin on a freezing winter night.

Joey Michael Audy, 36, pleaded guilty in court Thursday to one count of attempted murder. He remains in custody and will be sentenced at a later date following the completion of a court-ordered report detailing his Indigenous background and personal history.

Attempted murder is generally recognized as one of the toughest criminal offences to prove, given the requirement to establish intent beyond a reasonable doubt.

A psychiatric assessment completed last year concluded Audy did not meet the criteria for a finding of not criminally responsible.

Audy is the last of five people charged in the Dec. 10, 2023, incident to be dealt with by the court. Details of the incident were laid out in an agreed statement of facts read out in court.

“I can tell you that the agreed statement of facts came as the result of much discussion between me and (the Crown’s office) and me and Mr. Audy in private… and we got it in a form today where Mr. Audy and me are both satisfied that it represents the facts upon which he has entered his plea,” defence lawyer Mike Cook told provincial court Judge Larry Allen.

The statement says the then 26-year-old victim was waiting for a bus at Sargent Avenue and Maryland Street at about 3:30 p.m. when a man she didn’t know approached her and said, “You’re coming with me,” before pulling her onto a departing bus.

The man took the victim to a Manitoba Housing complex at 24 Carlton St. and led her to a suite where he said he would give her alcohol and she could use the Wi-Fi for her phone. In attendance were apartment residents Lorde Barrios and Misty Bird, as well as Audy, Romeo Miles and Evelyn Mckay.

Audy and Miles were members of the same gang and had appeared uninvited at the suite, armed with a crowbar and knife for the purpose of “recruiting” Barrios.

The woman used the washroom after she entered the suite, during which time the man who took her there left the building. When the woman left the washroom, Audy asked her who had taken her there and she mistakenly identified Barrios.

“When Barrios denied knowing the victim, Audy accused the victim of being a ‘narc’ or a ‘rat,’” Crown attorney Courtney St. Croix told court, reading from the agreed statement of facts.

Audy told McKay to search the victim for “wires” and then had the woman place her backpack and jacket in the middle of the room before punching her in the face and knocking her to the floor.

At Audy’s instruction, McKay and Bird tied up the victim with duct tape before Audy shoved her under a bed.

Audy and Miles left the suite around 4:30 p.m., telling Barros they would return later to “collect” the victim.

“Barrios, Bird and McKay argued over whether to untie the victim, but decided to keep her tied up because Audy was going to return and they were fearful of him,” St. Croix said.

McKay left the apartment shortly before 7 p.m. Around 8 p.m., when Audy had not yet returned, Barrios and Bird untied the victim and took her with them to play VLTs. Barrios gave her $5 to play the machines.

Barrios, Bird and the victim returned to the apartment at 8:40 p.m., at which time Barrios and Bird started using methamphetamine. Audy returned a short time later in the company of another man and asked why the victim had been freed from her restraints.

Barrios told Audy he didn’t think he was coming back.

“Over the next three hours, the group was socializing , drinking and doing drugs together,” St. Croix said. “Audy commented that he was going to toss the victim in the dumpster and light her up” and threatened to “hang her by a hanger.”

McKay returned to the suite shortly after midnight, at which time Audy told her to tie up the victim again. McKay “hog-tied” the victim with zip ties retrieved from another apartment. Duct tape was placed over her mouth.

Audy stomped on the woman’s head and she was blindfolded, before Audy and McKay forced her into a hockey bag and zipped it up.

Audy and McKay took the woman to an elevator, as Audy played music on a portable speaker to “mute (the victim’s) screams.” Once outside, Audy and McKay dragged the hockey bag to a dumpster, where Audy threw it inside and closed the lid.

“The victim remained quiet for a short period of time and then started screaming and banging on the dumpster,” St. Croix said. “She was trying to untie herself and panicking as she thought she was going to die.”

About a half-hour later, Barrios went outside and heard the woman screaming. Barrios opened the dumpster lid and told the woman he would be right back. He returned an hour later with Bird and the two removed the woman from the hockey bag and removed her restraints.

The woman was taken back to the suite where she was provided a shower, clothing and food. The next morning, Bird helped the woman board a bus for the Health Sciences Centre, where staff contacted police.

“It was like I wasn’t even human to you, I was just something to throw away,” the victim said at McKay’s sentencing hearing last December.

McKay pleaded guilty to one count of forcible confinement and was sentenced to 39 months in custody.

Charges of forcible confinement and robbery involving Barrios and Bird were stayed last year.

Miles pleaded guilty to forcible confinement and robbery and was sentenced last March to 18 months in jail.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca