Man pleads guilty to second-degree murder

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This article was published 20/05/2025 (186 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Leon Mercredi shot Leona Tssessaze and Brent Denechezhe dead in a Lac Brochet house and then set it ablaze in a failed effort to cover up his crime.

Now, nearly four years after he fled the province, and one year after a lengthy police investigation ended in his arrest, Mercredi has admitted responsibility for the killings. He pleaded guilty in a Winnipeg courtroom last week to two counts of second-degree murder.

Mercredi was originally charged with first-degree murder for the Sept. 9, 2021, killings, but was allowed to enter pleas to the lesser charge “based on a lack of apparent planning” and because he was intoxicated at the time, Crown attorney Chris Vanderhooft told court.

Mercredi, 23, will return to court in Thompson next month when Crown and defence lawyers will jointly recommend that he be sentenced to life in prison with no eligibility of parole for 15 years.

Prior to Mercredi entering his pleas, Vanderhooft outlined the circumstances of the killings and subsequent police investigation as nearly a dozen of the victims’ family members listened in the court gallery.

Mercredi, Tssessaze, 24, and another man had been drinking at Mercredi’s house trailer when at around 3 a.m. the three left on foot, with Mercredi and Tssessaze arriving a short time later at Denechezhe’s home.

Sometime later, Mercredi left for his grandparents’ home, where he grabbed a firearm. He then returned to the Denechezhe residence. Once there, he shot Tssessaze in the torso and 31-year-old Denechezhe in the head.

Mercredi returned to his grandparents’ home for a container of gas, went back to Denechezhe’s house and set it on fire “intending to destroy evidence of the earlier events,” Vanderhooft said.

“The structure was fully engulfed in flames when first responders arrived,” he said.

Mercredi immediately fled the province to live with his mother in Prince Albert, Sask.

RCMP began a lengthy investigation and interviewed Mercredi’s former girlfriend, who said he had confessed to the killings on “multiple occasions,” Vanderhooft said.

“Her account included details that had not been made public by RCMP,” including that the victims had been shot and where they were in the house when shot, Vanderhooft said.

Police arrested Mercredi in Fond du Lac, Sask., in April 2024. When first interviewed by police, Mercredi claimed Tssessaze had gone to Denechezhe’s residence on her own and he had returned home.

“Investigative findings contradicted that claim,” Vanderhooft said.

In a later interview, Mercredi admitted to shooting the victims, but claimed he did not know the firearm was loaded and only intended to scare them.

In a “covertly recorded” conversation while in custody, Mercredi expressed concern that police had seized his phone, Vanderhooft said.

Investigators learned that after Mercredi’s girlfriend was interviewed by police, Mercredi and others in his circle moved their communications to alternative messaging apps, “suggesting some evidence remained on his devices.”

Court was given no explanation for the killings. RCMP, in a news release issued following Mercredi’s arrest, said he allegedly shot the victims following a “disagreement.”

The killings affected everyone in the remote Dene community, Northlands Denesuline Chief Simon Denechezhe, Brent’s uncle, said following Mercredi’s arrest.

“Not knowing caused fear and anxiety among our people,” Denechezhe told the Free Press at the time.

Tssessaze’s mother said her heart “was broken all over again” after learning her daughter had been shot.

“I thought she died in a fire,” she told the Free Press last year.

“To know she died the way she did takes my breath away.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca