Drug relapse preceded mass killing: witness

Days before allegedly killing five people inside a Langside Street crack house, Jamie Felix suffered a drug relapse that prompted his girlfriend to end their three-year relationship, a jury heard Monday.

The 41-year-old woman testified she found Felix smoking drugs in her car with a stranger in downtown Winnipeg on Nov. 17, 2023. After returning to their apartment, Felix confessed he had pawned his laptop computer to buy drugs.

Felix walked out of the apartment a short time later and the woman didn’t try to stop him, as she had every other time he relapsed, she said.

“I came to the realization that I needed to let Jamie go because we were back in that cycle again,” said the woman, who cannot be identified due to a publication ban. “I knew that I needed to follow through with my decision.”

Felix, 35, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of second-degree murder in the Nov. 26, 2023, shootings of Crystal Beardy, 34; her sister Stephanie Beardy, 33; Melelek Lesikel, 29; Dylan Lavallee, 41; and Shawn Marko, 56.

Nov. 23, three nights before the shootings, Felix was outside the woman’s apartment building, throwing rocks at her window and yelling her name.

The woman said she did not initially recognize the man as Felix and retreated to her son’s bedroom and called 911 when he gained entry to the building and entered her suite.

The woman said she held the bedroom door closed as Felix tried to enter the room and had a “quick glimpse” of his face.

“He didn’t look like himself,” she said. “I knew he wasn’t sober. He was definitely angry, and his eyes were dark.”

The woman said Felix rummaged in another room before leaving the suite with her car keys and her son’s cellphone.

Police arrived sometime later with the woman’s car keys and cellphone and told her Felix had returned to the apartment building and turned himself in.

The woman said she learned of the shooting days later after an acquaintance posted a message on Facebook suggesting Felix had been at the drug house.

“I knew that was the area Jamie would go (when he relapsed),” the woman said. “I called all the hospitals, I called police…. Police told me he wasn’t one of the victims.”

The woman said she received a message from Felix’s grandmother a couple of days later with a message from her grandson.

“She said, ‘Jamie wanted me to tell you he’s sorry for everything and he loves you very much,’” the woman told court.

“In the moment, I thought it was about what happened (Nov. 23),” she said. “I felt better because I knew he was OK.”

The woman said she called Felix at his grandmother’s apartment. “I asked how he was doing.

“He said, ‘not good.’ I said, ‘I’ll be right there.’”

The woman said when she arrived at the apartment, Felix opened the door “and he immediately melted into my arms, he was crying.”

Crown attorney Chantal Boutin asked if Felix said anything, after which the woman paused for more than 90 seconds before answering.

“Jamie said: ‘I killed people,’” she said. “He was crying and shaking as I was holding him…. He was really upset. He was really struggling.”

The woman said Felix told her what happened “in bits and pieces” over a period of days.

Felix said he had spent three days at the drug house, drinking, smoking crack and not sleeping. “He said he didn’t want to be there, but thought he had nowhere else to go,” the woman said. “He said he didn’t feel safe there.”

Among those at the drug house were Felix’s brother and his late father, Randolph “Chummy” Fagnan. Prosecutors have told jurors Felix’s’s brother and father were both “associated” with the gang that ran the drug house.

The woman testified Felix told her his brother loudly provided him a bullet proof vest in plain view of others at the drug house and gave him a gun.

“Jamie said he felt scared and like he was being used as a weapon because he was the biggest guy there and (because of) his military background,” she said.

Felix said his father took him outside to the back lane where he told Felix to fire the gun, before returning to the drug house, the woman told jurors.

“He said everything was blurring after that,” the woman said. She asked Felix how he could be sure he shot anybody.

“He said yes, because he remembered it in bits and pieces,” she said.

Felix told her he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but there were no bullets left.

Felix ran from the crack house and woke up underneath the Maryland bridge before making his way to his grandmother’s apartment. Felix said his father came to the apartment and disposed of Felix’s clothes.

Felix and the woman shared sombre smiles when their eyes met during her testimony.

“It was very difficult to hear the information Jamie told me,” she said. “I wanted everyone to know the truth and I knew he would tell me… I know the real Jamie and I knew he would tell me everything.”

Court heard the woman lives with epilepsy and both she and Felix take anti-seizure medication, which is not to be mixed with alcohol and drugs.

The woman said Felix has long struggled with the death of his twin brother Johnathen Felix, who was fatally shot following a November 2012 drug deal Jamie told her had been arranged by their father.

“It was definitely very hard for him in all aspects of his life,” the woman said. “His brother was his best friend…. It was hard for him to cope.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca