The Wrap: Impaired driving sentence, Skibicki trial, problem properties, Wheeler’s future
Plus: Wesmen assistant coach’s courage in face of cancer diagnosis

A Winnipeg man who killed a mother of twins while driving drunk in December 2022 was sentenced to six years in prison Tuesday.

Nicholas Primo Baldovi, then 22, had twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood as he put the pedal to the floor of his pick-up truck, slamming the vehicle at 143 km/h into the passenger side of Sarbjit Gill’s SUV as she made a left turn at Inkster Boulevard and King Edward Street on her way home from work.

Baldovi pleaded guilty to one count each of dangerous driving causing death and impaired driving causing death.

Erik Pindera was in court to hear statements about the impact of Gill’s death on her widower, her children and her brother.

At the trial for admitted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, Dr. Sohom Das, a forensic psychiatrist from the United Kingdom, testified the killings came after years of violent acts by Skibicki stemming from mental illness.

Das said he interviewed Skibicki twice and studied the killer’s medical files, criminal record and social media posts.

Based off their interactions, Das told court Skibicki knew what he was doing at the time was legally wrong but that he was compelled to do it.

Dean Pritchard reports from the law courts.

Since January, city workers and the Winnipeg Police Service have inspected 39 vacant or derelict homes, responded to 282 calls for service on problem properties and boarded up 114 buildings, according to data presented Tuesday by the city’s Problem Properties Task Force.

Sixty-nine properties across the city need to be remediated or demolished, with 21 being taken care of by their owners and 48 handled by the city, the task force said.

“Problem properties” are defined by the city as derelict buildings, vacant homes repeatedly catching fire, properties that were the site of fires and are partially demolished, or demolished and need to be cleaned up.

Nicole Buffie reports on the task force’s findings.

It’s possible former Winnipeg Jets captain Blake Wheeler has already played his final NHL game.

As the New York Rangers met with members of the media on Tuesday morning on exit interview day, Wheeler didn’t use the word “retirement” when asked if he’s thought about what comes next — but he also wasn’t ready to declare he was coming back again.

Jeff Kovalik-Plouffe has always been the sort of guy who wouldn’t willingly slow down for anyone or anything.

However, the realities of life have forced the assistant coach with the University of Winnipeg men’s basketball team to tap the brakes… for the next few months, at least.

Kovalik-Plouffe recently had life-altering surgery on his colon and he’s undergoing chemotherapy for a cancer discovered in March, after he was hospitalized in Quebec City while the Wesmen were at the national tournament.

Kovalik-Plouffe is accustomed to the rigours of recuperation from a major health event, though; since 2000, he’s strugged with ulcerated colitis, autoimmune encephalitis, and a chronic liver disease that led to a transplant.

He is approaching his latest diagnosis with the fierce resolve he’s applied before, and hopes to be back on the Wesmen sidelines by next season.

Mike Sawatzky reports.