Woman gets 14 years for role in 2020 slaying

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This article was published 26/05/2022 (1239 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

After fatally assaulting John Kirkwa for his bank card, his attackers dumped his body in a garbage bin and siphoned the remaining dollars from his bank account.

In court this week, Roberta Jessamine, 51, pleaded guilty to manslaughter for her part in the March 21, 2020, killing and was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Jessamine and co-accused Selena Cross were arrested four days after the killing and one day after a Lansdowne Avenue resident discovered the 33-year-old victim’s body in her garbage bin.

Court was told Jessamine was angry that Kirkwa had allegedly not paid her for drugs she had purchased for him hours before his death.

“Ms. Jessamine was concerned with one thing and one thing only: she wanted to get paid,” Crown attorney Marnie Evans told Queen’s Bench Justice Sadie Bond. “At the end of the day, she didn’t care how she got paid, only that she got her money.”

An agreed statement of facts provided to court says Cross and another woman had met Kirkwa, a resident of Arviat, Nunavut, hours before the killing at a Main Street hotel bar where they drank and “socialized.”

Shortly after 2 a.m., the three left the bar and went by taxi to a Selkirk Avenue bank where Kirkwa withdrew $300 from the ATM.

“Upon re-entering the taxi, Cross informed (the other woman) that she knew Kirkwa’s personal bank card PIN,” defence lawyer Tom Rees told court, reading from the agreed statement of facts.

After dropping Cross’s friend off at home, Cross and Kirkwa took the taxi to Cross’s Inkster Boulevard home where they continued drinking.

Around 4 a.m., Cross used Kirkwa’s bank card to withdraw $600 from a Main Street ATM before returning home, where Kirkwa had continued drinking with Cross’s two children and Jessamine.

That same morning, Jessamine delivered crack cocaine to Cross and Kirkwa.

“Payment was not forthcoming, but was promised, so Jessamine remained (at the home), joining Cross and Kirkwa in consuming cocaine,” said the agreed statement of facts.

Jessamine, Cross and Kirkwa continued to drink and consume cocaine for hours when later that afternoon an argument between Cross and Kirkwa ended with Kirkwa being punched and kicked to the floor.

Jessamine, still hoping to be paid for the drugs, provided a cord that was used to bind and restrain Kirkwa.

“In so doing she became a party to the assault and forcible confinement that resulted in (Kirkwa’s) death,” said the agreed statement of facts. “As Kirkwa continued to struggle, someone other than Jessamine used a chain to put pressure on his neck, cutting off his air with fatal results.”

After realizing Kirkwa was dead, Jessamine and Cross “panicked” and placed his body in a garbage bin, which they later wheeled to the rear of a Lansdowne Avenue home.

“It is clearly an insult and an indignity to the deceased that he was treated in that way,” Bond said.

Over two days, Jessamine and Cross used Kirkwa’s bank card to withdraw $900 from his account, exhausting it of all funds.

Jessamine’s sentence was jointly recommended by the Crown and defence in a plea bargain Evans said took into account her severe intoxication and the fact the Crown would have had to rely “substantially” on the testimony of Cross and her children had the case gone to trial.

Cross pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received the same sentence as Jessamine earlier this month.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca