Second suspect charged in 2016 death
Police have charged a second person in the 2016 beating death of a Nova Scotia man found slain in an Edmonton ditch.
On Thursday, Edmonton police announced homicide detectives have charged a 34-year-old man with manslaughter in connection with the killing of Brad MacDonald.
MacDonald, 37, was found dead in a field near Stony Plain Road and Winterburn Road on the morning of April 10, 2016. The medical examiner concluded he died of blunt force trauma.
In Sept. 2016, detectives arrested and charged another man, Austin Southworth, in connection with the death.
South worth was handed a 10- year sentence earlier this year after pleading guilty to manslaughter in the homicide. He was initially charged with second-degree murder.
According to an agreed statement of facts entered with the court in that case, a group of men including Southworth planned to attack MacDonald after they were solicited to fight him over a debt he owed to a sex worker.
Southworth and his friends were drinking and doing drugs the night of April 9 when they invited MacDonald to a party, then drove around with him in a truck before stopping in the ditch.
The men caught and beat MacDonald when he tried to run. At some point, Southworth began beating MacDonald with a baseball bat, court heard, hitting him in the head.
The men fled in the truck, but turned around and went back to steal MacDonald’s wallet.
MacDonald was reportedly still breathing when they robbed him and left him to die, court heard, and no one called for help.
The men took off in the truck again, wiping down the baseball bat before tossing it out the window.
MacDonald’s bloodied body was found by a passerby the next day.
Detectives later found the baseball bat a few kilometres away with MacDonald’s DNA on it.
A beer can found near the scene had Southworth’s fingerprint on it.
Maurice Laurence Joseph Angel Schau, 34, has been charged with manslaughter in the case.
A police news release Thursday did not list the date of his upcoming court appearance.