Man convicted of murdering his teenage cousin while she slept

Judge rejects claim that stabbing was meant to end her suffering, not her life

A man who admitted to stabbing and trying to suffocate his teenage cousin as she slept intended to kill her, a judge ruled Thursday.

Joseph Ryan Sinclair, 23, was convicted of second-degree murder Thursday in connection to the death of his 17-year-old cousin Leona Neapetung- Stevens.

During the trial, Sinclair conceded he’d killed his cousin, but argued it was manslaughter not murder because he hadn’t formed the intent to kill, and that he was drunk during the offence.

But during his lengthy confession to police, which was admitted as evidence during the trial, he said he stabbed his cousin because he didn’t want her to suffer anymore and because he was “jealous.”

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Peter Michalyshyn drew on two of the accused’s own statements to police as he explained how he determined the attack amounted to murder.

“I find that whether or not he ... ‘didn’t want her to suffer,’ I find that he clearly ‘didn’t want her to be alive,’” the judge said, quoting Sinclair’s own admissions to a detective. The judge said Sinclair’s statement about wanting Neapetung-Stevens to die was made “candidly, unequivocally and truthfully.”

The judge also found Sinclair wouldn’t have been more than “mildly intoxicated” when he repeatedly stabbed Neapetung- Stevens with a kitchen knife.

Court heard the cousins had spent the evening together on Oct. 30, 2016. After meeting for coffee downtown, they went to Sinclair’s house and drank alcohol together. Shortly after 1 a.m., Sinclair said he went up to bed and his cousin fell asleep on the couch. A short while later, Sinclair said he woke up and took a knife and began stabbing his cousin.

She resisted, he said, rolling on

I find that, whether or not he … ‘didn’t want her to suffer,’ I find that he clearly ‘didn’t want her to be alive.’

the floor and biting his hand when he shoved his fingers in her mouth to try to choke her, before stabbing her again in the back. He said he later tried to kill himself in a number of different ways.

A date for sentencing won’t be set until the case returns to court to schedule a hearing date on Nov. 27. In the meantime, a Gladue report was ordered to be prepared, which will inform Michalyshyn if there are background or systemic factors that may have contributed to bringing Sinclair, an Indigenous man, before the court.

Sinclair will remain in custody pending the sentence.

A second-degree murder conviction in Canada comes with an automatic life sentence, although eligibility to apply for parole can be set for anywhere between 10 and 25 years.