Man on trial for gunning down five people in drug den ‘knew it was wrong’: Crown

Jamie Randy Felix spent days smoking crack and drinking in a Langside Street drug den, but when he mowed down five people in an hail of gunfire, he knew exactly what he was doing, prosecutors alleged Tuesday.

Felix, 34, is on trial charged with five counts of second-degree murder for the November 26, 2023, shootings of Crystal Beardy, 34; her sister Stephanie Beardy, 33; Melelek Lesikel, 29; Dylan Lavallee, 41; and Shawn Marko, 56.

“Each killing (was) a choice,” Crown attorney Georgia Couturier said in her opening address to jurors. “Choices that, we the Crown say, were conscious, intentional responses to what Mr. Felix believed were unsettling events unfolding around him. But conscious choices all the same.”

On the night of the killings, Felix was joined by his father and brother, both of whom were associated with the gang that operated the “crack shack,” Couturier told court.

In front of others in the suite, Felix’s brother gave him a handgun and a bullet-proof vest to wear.

“Mr. Felix felt that (his father and brother) were using… (Felix’s) size and his military background to intimidate the people around them,” Couturier said. “Yet even as Mr. Felix asked what was happening, he was given no answers. Instead, he was left in the dark, growing increasingly uncomfortable and increasingly fearful.”

At 3:45 a.m., Felix left the suite and went for a walk with his father to the back lane where, at his father’s urging, Felix fired the handgun, Couturier said. Minutes later, they returned to the suite.

“And then, almost immediately, Mr. Felix fired nine shots in rapid succession: eight seconds was all it took,” she said.

Lavallee, Lesikel, Stephanie Beardy and Crystal Beardy were all shot in the head, while Marko was shot in his torso and arm.

Felix turned the gun on himself, found it empty, and fled.

Const. Chad Swenarchuk testified he and his partner were called to 143 Langside St. shortly after 4 a.m. Swenarchuk said they entered the building through the back door and found a “deceased individual” slumped against it and heard a male, identified as Marko, at the other end of the suite, yelling that he had been shot.

“He looked like he was in quite a great deal of pain, and he was struggling to breathe,” Swenarchuk said.

Marko identified the man who shot him as Jamie Houle. Jurors heard earlier that Felix’s brother’s last name is Houle.

Swenarchuk said he asked Marko for additional identifying details, but he didn’t answer.

“I believe because of the amount of pain he was in,” he testified.

Swenarchuk and another officer, Const. Scott Blanco, cut away Marko’s clothes to find the source of his bleeding and provided first aid until paramedics arrived.

Blanco testified he rode in the ambulance with Marko to Health Sciences Centre.

“I asked him who did this to him and he said: Jamie Houle,” Blanco told jurors.

Marko died in hospital 18 months later. All the other victims died on the night they were shot.

Days after the shooting, Felix told his then-girlfriend what he had done, Couturier said in her opening address.

“He told her that he had killed people,” Couturier said. “He described to her… how the events unfolded inside the suite, and the thoughts and feelings he experienced before, during and afterwards.”

Couturier said Felix’s mother is expected to testify about his father, who has died since the killings, and his “lifestyle.”

“We expect she will also tell you about her son (and) his struggles with drug use and the messages that she exchanged with him in the days following the shooting,” Couturier told jurors.

“The Crown will not dispute that Mr. Felix’s state of mind was affected by his use of crack and alcohol,” she said. “But regardless of his substance use and any other evidence you hear in this trial, we will argue that you can all be certain that when Jamie Randy Felix pulled the trigger and fired those bullets… he appreciated what he was doing, he knew it was wrong… and he did it anyway.”

The trial is scheduled for four weeks.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.

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