Man charged in weekend homicide convicted in previous assaults of victim

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This article was published 25/03/2025 (367 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Norway House First Nation woman slain in Winnipeg this past weekend once told Crown prosecutors she lived in fear of the man now accused of killing her.

Stephanie Anderson-Paupanekis, 33, died after city police found her severely injured inside a home on the 1000 block of Selkirk Avenue just after 3 a.m. Saturday.

Officers were called to the residence for reports of a domestic-related assault, the Winnipeg Police Service said in a Monday news release.

Police arrested and charged 40-year-old Jason Matthew Keam, also from Norway House, with second-degree murder.

A review of court records revealed Keam shared at least two young children with Anderson-Paupanekis, whom he was previously convicted of assaulting at least three times — including a May 2020 attack in which he beat her with a golf club.

“If you look at his record, there’s obviously a lot of violence on it, domestic violence, domestic violence related to Ms. Paupanekis. She certainly is afraid of Mr. Keam,” Crown prosecutor Owen Sasek told provincial court Judge Samuel Raposo during a sentencing hearing on Feb. 15, 2022.

“She said she is concerned for her safety when he is out of custody.”

Keam appeared in court in Thompson and pleaded guilty to multiple offences that occurred over the span of several months, including attacking Anderson-Paupanekis, breaking a non-contact order and fighting with police.

According to an agreed statement of facts, Keam and Anderson-Paupanekis were in a domestic relationship but not living together when he showed up at her home on May 24, 2020. Keam, who was drunk, struck Anderson-Paupanekis about 10 times with a golf putter “with enough force that it broke the club,” Sasek said.

Anderson-Paupanekis went to the hospital the following day, where medical records show she suffered wounds to her stomach, back and legs, including a 12.5-centimetre gash on her upper thigh that was still bleeding, he said.

She reported the assault to police about two months later. Keam was arrested and then released on orders not to contact his victim, court heard.

In December of that year, Keam texted Anderson-Paupanekis, calling her a “rat” and saying “he was going to come over to where she was,” Sasek said.

Anderson-Paupanekis alerted police, and the court record shows no other contact breaches until one year later, on Dec. 21, 2021, when he texted her to say he loved her and missed her, Sasek said.

She again phoned police, who took Keam into custody. During the arrest, Keam punched one officer in the groin and kicked another in the face, court heard.

Raposo accepted a joint recommendation proposed by the Crown and defence lawyer Ian McAmmond, ultimately sentencing Keam to just under two years for the crimes.

McAmmond said his client was an alcoholic who had lived in Norway House his entire life and worked as a commercial fisherman.

He possessed a Grade 10 education and grew up with violence and drinking on a regular basis, McAmmond said.

Keam was previously convicted of assaulting Anderson-Paupanekis in 2018 and 2019, Sasek said.

His criminal record includes dozens of convictions, including assaults, robbery and thefts dating to 2002, records show.

Given the chance to address the court, Keam apologized to his former partner, his children and to the police.

“I’m tired of this lifestyle. I’m sick of it and I’m getting too old for it. I’m trying to move forward in life instead of backward,” Keam said.

It is unclear whether Keam was under orders not to have contact with Anderson-Paupanekis at the time of her death.

Police said he was arrested near the scene of the slaying, with the help of a K9 unit. Officers performed CPR on Anderson-Paupanekis, who was taken to the hospital in critical condition. Police said she had been living in Winnipeg since 2024.

Tsungai Muvingi Van Landeghem, a provincial co-ordinator with the Manitoba Association for Women’s Shelters, said the case bears several hallmarks typical of domestic-violence cases.

Indigenous women and people of colour experience the highest rates of intimate violence.

Addictions, trauma and geographical relocation (people moving from remote communities into metropolitan areas, or vice versa) are common exacerbating factors, Muvingi Van Landeghem said.

Manitoba had the second-highest rates of police-reported intimate partner and family violence among Canadian provinces in 2022 and 2023, according to the latest Statistics Canada data available.

“Unfortunately, the numbers are not getting any better currently. This is unsustainable and more needs to be done to address family violence and intimate partner violence,” Muvingi Van Landeghem said.

Some Manitoba shelters have seen the demand from their services increase up to 30 per cent over the past year, she added, describing the issue as an “epidemic.”

Muvingi Van Landeghem acknowledged the provincial government has taken steps to address the issue, but said more resources are needed.

Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine expressed sorrow for the death of Anderson-Paupanekis Monday.

“My heart goes out to her family and her friends, and the whole community,” she told the Free Press.

Fontaine said her department is currently drafting legislation that would re-establish the Manitoba Domestic Violence Death Review Committee and enshrine it in law. She told the Free Press last August the government was eyeing a return of the defunct initiative.

The committee was established in 2010 and tasked with examining domestic violence homicides to identify trends, risk factors, systemic concerns and recommendations.

It averaged about one review per year until 2019 — the last year it finalized a report.

Fontaine accused the former Progressive Conservative government of allowing the committee to fall by the wayside.

The NDP government has introduced several initiatives and a $20-million strategy to address domestic violence, Fontaine said.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca