Woman strikes deal, agrees to testify against others accused in 2023 slaying

A woman who struck an agreement with prosecutors to testify against three others accused in the 2023 slaying of a Winnipeg woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to forcibly confining and assaulting the victim before her death.

Winnipeg Police Service homicide detectives and Crown prosecutors believe Shelby Dawn Hayward, 30, was slain sometime between Oct. 20-30, 2023.

Katrina Patricia Nellie Muswagon, 33, signed what’s known as a limited immunity agreement with the Crown’s office in exchange for her future testimony against the others charged in Hayward’s slaying, prosecutor Brent Davidson told provincial court Judge Kael McKenzie on Wednesday.

Muswagon was charged last summer with first-degree murder in Hayward’s killing, with three others: Vincent Charles Fontaine, who’s about 40, and Tamara Gayle Moneyas and Taylor Lena Ray Moose, who are both in their mid-20s. The first-degree murder charge against Muswagon was stayed Wednesday.

Davidson, reading from an agreed statement of facts, outlined the circumstances believed to have led to Hayward’s death, following her confinement in the bathroom of an Arlington Street drug den, shortly after she was last seen near Polo Park mall on Oct. 20, 2023.

Muswagon was at the Arlington Street house sometime between Oct. 20-30, 2023, along with Fontaine, Moose and others, when Hayward arrived with a woman named Candace.

An argument later ensued as Fontaine believed Hayward had “stolen drugs from him,” said the prosecutor.

Davidson said Fontaine directed Muswagon and Moose to take Hayward to the drug den’s bathroom, where she remained confined.

Muswagon, acting at the direction of Fontaine, shaved half of the hair on Hayward’s head with clippers handed to her by Moose, said Davidson.

“As matters progressed within the washroom, it became evident to (Muswagon) that something worse than what was happening would follow,” said Davidson.

“Specifically, she heard Vincent Fontaine utter that… ‘He was going to chop that b—— up and put her all over the city.’”

Muswagon also heard Moose tell Fontaine that a “better way to complete their goal” would be to give Hayward a large quantity of illicit drugs to lead to an overdose, commonly referred to as a “hotshot,” said the prosecutor.

Muswagon watched Moose give Hayward the “hotshot,” before she was told by Fontaine to leave the house to go get garbage bags, Davidson said. She did leave, but did not return.

“She never saw Shelby again and noted that Shelby was alive when she left,” said Davidson.

Hayward’s body has not been found.

Muswagon, who was arrested last summer at the Women’s Correctional Centre in Headingley, sat for an interview with Winnipeg homicide detectives and ultimately admitted her involvement in the incident and implicated the other accused, said Davidson.

Police confirmed the veracity of her statements via speaking with other witnesses.

Davidson told court that Muswagon did not ask for the limited immunity agreement she signed.

“I ultimately made the determination, both myself and through consultation with other senior Crown attorneys, that the import of her evidence with respect to the main perpetrators of this offence outweighed any disrepute to the public administration of justice by entering into an agreement with her,” said Davidson.

The terms of the agreement were not outlined in court, but it included her guilty pleas and future testimony.

Fontaine, Moneyas and Moose are awaiting a preliminary inquiry on their murder charges.

“Without the assistance of Ms. Muswagon in that prosecution, the case against them, even though I’m not prosecuting it, I’ve had the opportunity to review it, it was extremely difficult,” said Davidson.

“Does this make it absolute? It does not. However, it drastically increases the possibility for a just and righteous outcome.”

Muswagon was sentenced Wednesday to time served, plus three years of supervised probation, for the forcible confinement and assault charges.

Her lawyer, Scott Newman, said Muswagon has treaty status with Norway House First Nation and grew up in a home with an abusive father and a mother with addictions issues.

She committed some crimes in her youth and young adulthood but became a mother in 2012 and her focus became her children, he said.

Her and her children’s father moved to Winnipeg in 2016, but separated in 2018 and he took custody of the children.

That led Muswagon into a downward spiral into addictions to meth and opiates and into the city’s drug subculture, which ultimately led her to the Arlington Street drug den, said Newman.

Her lawyer said she told police she liked Hayward and wanted to do the right thing and testify in court.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca