Accused admitted ‘they shot’ woman, court told

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This article was published 10/01/2020 (2125 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Just hours after 21-year-old Shania Chartrand was shot dead outside a Spence Street rooming house, one of her three alleged killers confessed her involvement in the shooting in front of one the victim’s closest friends, jurors heard Friday.

Lacy Sorokowski appeared “nervous and worried” as she disclosed “they shot” an unnamed woman, Tara Michell testified.

“She said they shot her, they got scared, split up, ditched the car and ditched the gun,” said Michell, 20.

Sorokowski, 24, Tyrone Anthony Chippeway, 24, and Christopher Ryan St. Paul, 26, are on trial for second-degree murder in the March 12, 2017 killing.

Prosecutors allege Chippeway, identified as Chartrand’s cousin, messaged Chartrand and lured her outside the rooming house at approximately 10 p.m. when a shot was fired from a car circling the block, killing her.

Michell told jurors she was sleeping at her boyfriend’s Austin Street apartment and coming down from meth when she was awakened around 2 a.m. by the sound of her boyfriend and Sorokowski talking.

Sorokowski said she was driving the car and “didn’t know who the girl was,” Michell testified.

Michell said she didn’t ask Sorokowski for any further details.

“I didn’t give two shits,” she said. “I didn’t know who the girl was.”

Michell said when Sorokowski left about two hours later she received a text message from a friend saying Chartrand had been killed.

Michell said Sorokowski had visited her boyfriend’s home the previous day, accompanied by two men with the first names Tyrone and Chris, one of whom she later identified to police.

“I started bitching at (my boyfriend) because (Chartrand) was my best friend and I was pretty sure his friends had something to do with it,” Michell testified. “The stories matched together.”

In earlier testimony, St. Paul’s sister told court her brother, Chartrand’s former boyfriend, confessed involvement in the shooting a couple of weeks later.

“He said, ‘It was me that did that on Spence… I shot her,’” Lacey Sinclair told court.

Sinclair said she didn’t ask any questions of St. Paul, who appeared to be high.

“He wasn’t normal,” she said.

Under cross examination, St. Paul’s lawyer Stacey Soldier suggested Sinclair felt pressured by police to provide a statement and gave them details – including the fact Chartrand had been shot in the chest – that she may have gleaned from news or social media reports, or police themselves.

“You wanted to move things along and get out of that situation,” Soldier said.

“Yes,” Sinclair replied.

“If I say you were just agreeing with the officer, would that be accurate?” Soldier said.

“Yes,” Sinclair said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca