Woman took ‘meaningful’ responsibility after disposing of body: lawyer

A woman who was threatened with death if she didn’t help dispose the body of a Mexican man murdered in the basement of a North End home should serve no more jail time, a judge has been told.

Devlin Langlois, 25, has pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact to murder in the March 2025 killing of 28-year-old Diego Moscoza.

“By pleading guilty, Ms. Langlois has already taken meaningful accountability for her actions,” defence lawyer Joshua Rogala told King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond at a sentencing hearing Monday.

He urged the judge to sentence Langlois to the equivalent of 14 months already served, plus two years supervised probation.

Offenders are typically credited 1.5 days for every day served in custody prior to sentencing.

Langlois had been stabbed less than a year earlier by one of Moscoza’s alleged killers and had good reason to believe her life was in danger if she did not comply with their orders, Rogala said.

Langlois’ involvement “was entirely secondary, was reactive and driven by a direct and credible threat to her life by known violent gang members,” the lawyer said.

Taylor Gilbert Linklater and Noreen Ceara Remona Thomas, both in their 20s, are charged with second-degree murder in Moscoza’s killing and have not yet stood trial.

Circumstances of the killing were detailed in an agreed statement of facts read out in court.

Langlois lived at a home on Selkirk Avenue, just off Salter Street, with her 36-year-old boyfriend, a member of the Bloods street gang. Thomas and Linklater were also members of the gang.

Langlois had been assaulted by Linklater and her boyfriend in the summer of 2024, suffering at least one stab wound to her back in a gang-related attack, and remained fearful of the two men, the agreed statement of facts noted.

At about midnight on March 17, Linklater and Thomas showed up at the Selkirk house with Moscoza and another person. Linklater gave fentanyl to Langlois, her boyfriend and another roommate and told them to stay in their bedrooms and out of the basement, court heard.

“Linklater and Thomas went to the basement of the residence with Moscoza,” said Crown attorney Erin Dunsmore, reading from the agreed statement of facts. “The accused could hear loud music and voices coming from the basement and she ultimately fell asleep.”

When she awoke, Langlois heard Moscoza’s moans coming from downstairs, but neither she nor the others in the house called for police or an ambulance due to their fear of Linklater and Thomas.

An autopsy found he had been stabbed at least 16 times.

Linklater and Thomas were made aware Moscoza had died and returned to the home. The two told Langlois to leave the home and get a shopping cart, while they tried to clean the victim’s blood from the basement.

Linklater and Thomas, who had put Moscoza’s remains in a hockey bag, told Langlois to move his body, threatening her with death if she didn’t comply.

Langlois pushed a cart she found to the back lane behind nearby Pritchard Avenue, where a passerby discovered Moscoza hours later, at about 10:30 a.m, and called police.

Court heard Langlois has a troubled background marked by substance abuse, domestic violence and housing instability.

Dunsmore urged Grammond to sentence Langlois to another 16 months custody and three years supervised probation, arguing the sentence properly balanced the need to denounce her actions while at the same time supporting her rehabilitation.

Langlois has a sympathetic background, “but the heart of the offence is a very serious one,” Dunsmore said.

“As a public, we don’t want to just be afraid of violence, we also want to know that when violence happens and crimes occur, that people will come forward and assist the police in helping solve these crimes,” she said. “Ms. Langlois did the exact opposite.”

Moscoza, a Mexican citizen, had been living in Manitoba for two years, the Winnipeg Police Service said after his death.

A friend of the victim told the Free Press last year that Moscoza “got involved with the wrong people” in Winnipeg. He was known to city police and had lived in the U.S. at some point, police said last year.

Several of Moscoza’s family members watched the sentencing hearing remotely from the U.S.

Marcella Precious Rae shared a now two-year-old daughter with Moscoza.

“As her mother, all I can feel I can do is make sure she knows her father existed, that he mattered and he was taken away too soon,” she wrote in a victim impact statement read out in court. “She will only know him through all the memories we share… He never deserved to have his life end the way it did.”

Grammond will sentence Langlois at a later date.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca