Killer sent to prison for 12 years

It was just before 10 p.m. and David Justin Knott was so drunk he could barely stand.

Knott was hanging out that evening — Nov. 7, 2024 — in a bus shack outside the Airport Motor Inn on Ellice Avenue, where Jeremy Norton Flett, 47, was spending his time, too.

And it was in that shack, Crown prosecutor Richmond Eshikena told Court of King’s Bench Justice Sarah Inness on Monday, where Knott stabbed Flett four times, unprovoked, killing him.

Knott, 43, who was charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter in a plea bargain worked out, in large part, because of his high degree of intoxication at the time of the killing.

Inness accepted a joint recommendation from Eshikena and Knott’s defence lawyers, John Corona and Reed Sitarik, to sentence Knott to 12 years in prison.

“No sentence this court imposes can repair the harm that is done to the family… who lost their loved one as the result of the tragic, senseless, unprovoked actions of… Mr. Knott on that day,” said Inness, looking toward Flett’s family members in the gallery.

Eshikena outlined the circumstances of the killing after Knott’s guilty plea.

He told court Flett and Knott, who did not know each other, were in the shack with two others. Knott was on bail at the time for unrelated offences and was barred by court order from possessing weapons or being intoxicated.

An argument broke out and one of the other occupants in the shack, a woman, pushed Knott, who then aggressively approached her, said Eshikena. “However, the situation appeared to have settled down shortly after.”

But Knott suddenly pulled out a 30-centimetre-long knife from a sheath and attacked Flett, stabbing him four times, including twice in the back in an incident caught on surveillance tape.

Flett collapsed and soon died, as Knott walked away on Ellice Avenue.

Knott was picked up a few blocks away by Winnipeg Police Service officers, who found him about 10 minutes later, swaying and with the bloody knife in its sheath. Knott was still so drunk that when officers were trying to take his mugshot hours later, he had trouble standing straight, Eshikena said.

Eshikena read a statement to the court from Flett’s three daughters, who said they have suffered emotionally and financially since his death. He had been on “essentially, a month-long bender,” in the leadup to the stabbing, after his partner suffered a sexual assault, which left him feeling powerless.

Knott grew up at Garden Hill First Nation, Sitarik said. He said had Knott not been so drunk, the fatal stabbing would likely not have occurred.

Knott apologized to the court, his voice quiet and strained.

“I’m very sorry,” he said, staring straight down.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca