Killer laughed off arrest for stabbing
Teen falsely boasted about previous murder charge after fatal attack at party, court hears
Shortly after he was arrested in what ended up being the fatal stabbing of a Red Deer man in a city apartment suite, a young offender laughed about the incident, a court heard Monday.
Crown prosecutor Katherine Love said the then-17-year-old was tracked by a police helicopter in the early morning hours of July 19, 2015, and arrested mere minutes before Levi Marance died at Foothills Medical Centre.
“In response to his arrest for assault with a weapon, (the offender) commented: ‘So, if it’s a major crime what is it? First-degree (murder), second-degree or manslaughter, haha, you never told me,’” Love told Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Charlene Anderson.
“‘This is my second time I’ve been arrested for murder, haha, s--- man,’ ” the prosecutor quoted the youth’s comments to arresting officers.
There is no evidence the youth had previously been arrested for murder, she said.
As Love read from an agreed statement of facts, the admitted killer, dressed in remand centre overalls, sat in the prisoners’ box with his head bowed. The youth, now an adult, but a minor at the time so his identity is protected, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the killing.
Marance, 18, was repeatedly stabbed with a chisel by the offender and an adult assailant inside a 19th Street N.W. apartment, Love told Anderson.
Jesse Sky Copenace pleaded guilty in March to a reduced charge of manslaughter in connection with Marance’s death. He was sentenced in September to seven years in a federal penitentiary.
Both Copenace and the youth had originally been charged with second-degree murder.
Love told Anderson the offender, now 19, arrived at a house party at the apartment of Marance’s former girlfriend, Calla McGee, after the victim and Copenace had arrived. At the party, the three males and others in the apartment drank alcohol and consumed what they believed to be the drug MDMA.
At one point Copenace appeared agitated and McGee asked the youth and Marance to try to calm him down.
All three went into McGee’s bedroom, Love said. Once there, an altercation broke out with the youth and Copenace attacking Marance. Marance was stabbed repeatedly with a chisel by both attackers and suffered 35 wounds in all, according to an autopsy.
One of the wounds cut the carotid artery in Marance’s neck.
Outside court, Love, who earlier had stated she would be seeking an adult sentence for the killer, said she no longer will be doing so. The offender will return to court in January for his sentencing hearing.