Man gets five years for accidental shooting that killed ‘beautiful and bubbly’ woman

A Winnipeg man who accidentally shot a friend dead while high on meth has been sentenced to five years in prison.

Clinton Bignell, 51, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the November 2022 killing of 23-year-old Delany Nora Desmarais.

“I am extremely sorry for what happened,” Bignell told court Tuesday, his voice barely audible.

Desmarais was killed inside a William Avenue rooming house where Bignell had been living for about a month.

Crown and defence lawyers jointly recommended the sentence in a plea bargain that recognized significant frailties in the case against Bignell, prosecutor Nick Reeves told provincial court Judge Sam Raposo.

Bignell wasn’t immediately identified as a suspect and wasn’t arrested until May 2024. Court heard there was no physical evidence linking Bignell to the suite where Desmarais was killed.

Had the case gone to trial, the Crown would have had to rely on the evidence of rooming house witnesses, several of whom provided multiple conflicting statements to police, would have had a motivation to lie or been reluctant to testify, Reeves said.

The five-year prison sentence “essentially split the difference” between a possible acquittal at trial and a 10-year sentence the Crown likely would have recommended had Bignell been convicted, Reeves said.

Members of the Desmarais family — who did not attend the sentencing hearing — “were of the view justice was not necessarily served with a sentence like this,” Reeves said.

Bignell had been consuming meth in his suite into the early morning hours, as were several other people who visited his suite, including Desmarais, Reeves told court reading from an agreed statement of facts.

At about 5:20 a.m., Bignell and Desmarais were sitting on a bed when Bignell, who was not feeling well, asked a woman in the suite to find the building caretaker and send people home so he could go to the hospital.

When the caretaker came to the suite, he saw a sawed-off rifle beside Bignell on the bed and baggies of what he believed were drugs. Bignell asked the caretaker if he could borrow some money for a cab to the hospital and he returned to his suite to get some.

Bignell grabbed the rifle and pointed it at Desmarais “without the intention of shooting her,” Reeves said.

“The gun went off, hitting Desmarais in the neck,” he said. Bignell “looked shocked and immediately began to try to assist her.”

Bignell yelled for someone to call 911 before everyone else in the suite fled. Bignell moved Desmarais to the hallway before fleeing the building himself.

Paramedics arrived to find Desmarais in cardiac arrest and transported her to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Bignell’s first reaction was to help Desmarais, but he “panicked and left,” said defence lawyer Zack Kinahan.

“They were friends,” he said. “He didn’t know what to do.”

Family members at the time of her death described Desmarais, a mother of four, as a “beautiful and bubbly” person who was always looking to make friends.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca