Judge finds man guilty of second-degree murders in 2023 shooting deaths in The Pas

A man has been convicted of two counts of second-degree murder in the 2023 shooting deaths of two strangers in a residential alley in The Pas.

Keith Campbell, who is from Moose Lake and in his early 20s, was charged about two months after the double shooting, which happened at about 4 a.m. on Jan. 15 that year, in the northern Manitoba town.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond convicted Campbell after trial last fall and issued a written decision on her verdict earlier this month.

“The Crown has proven beyond a reasonable doubt that the accused was the shooter,” she wrote.

One of the victims, 42-year-old Jordan Moosetail, was shot six times after a random confrontation near his backyard with Campbell and three of his cousins, two of whom were teenagers. He had stepped out to smoke a cigarette.

The two teenagers were charged in the killing but it was not immediately clear Thursday whether their charges proceeded in court.

The other victim, 37-year-old Patrick Bighetty, was shot twice while walking in the adjacent alley after he witnessed the first slaying.

The group had been hanging out at a housing complex, where Campbell’s aunts lived, the previous night before they left at about 11:20 p.m. in a vehicle driven by one of the teens.

It appears the murder weapon, likely a .22 rifle that was never recovered, was used along with a pistol in a drive-by shooting in which no one was injured, minutes later. That pistol was later recovered with the fingerprints of one of the teens, identified only as “E.C.”

The group of four then went to the New Avenue Hotel, where they got some booze after acting aggressively, before leaving just after midnight.

They walked into another back lane and encountered a resident, who E.C. threatened to shoot, before the others in the group got him to move along.

The group proceeded to another alley, where the confrontations and shootings occurred.

The other teen riled up the other group members, erroneously declaring that someone in the area was filming them, leading to the confrontation with Moosetail, Grammond wrote.

The Crown argued Campbell followed his two teen cousins to act as protection or “backup.”

Grammond agreed, finding Campbell shot Moosetail after E.C. got into a confrontation with the victim, before shooting Bighetty as he came across the scene.

Campbell’s lawyers Zachary Kinahan and Ashley Anderson, as well as Campbell himself, had argued in court that it was, in fact, E.C. who had shot the victims, first chasing Moosetail and shooting him, before shooting Bighetty.

The lawyers argued Campbell had tried to keep his cousin under control.

But Grammond, citing inconsistencies in the evidence and Campbell’s testimony, didn’t buy it.

She said the evidence at trial, which included video surveillance, text messages Campbell sent suggesting his guilt and witness testimony, showed the only reasonable inference to be drawn was that Campbell was carrying a firearm that night and that he was the shooter.

He’ll be sentenced at a later date. The mandatory penalty for second-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for between 10 and 25 years.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca