Man sentenced to six years for manslaughter

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A 41-year-old man described as a “gentle giant” has been sent to prison for stabbing to death his sister’s boyfriend more than two years ago during a drunken fight near Taber.

Stacey Charles Wahpistikwan was sentenced Thursday in Lethbridge provincial court to six years in a federal penitentiary, one year more than defence sought, but a year less than the prison term recommended by the Crown.

During sentencing Judge Derek Redman acknowledged Wahpistikwan’s mental disabilities and the impact on his life from substance abuse, physical abuse, abandonment, attempted suicide and intergenerational problems from poverty and lack of education.

But Redman noted the number and depth of the stab wounds, and the fact that Wahpistikwan hid his victim’s body, made the crime particularly aggravating.

Wahpistikwan pleaded guilty in January 2017 to one count of manslaughter in the death of Silas Kiseyinewakup, Sept. 22, 2015.

In an agreed statement of facts delivered to the court last year, Wahpistikwan admitted he had been drinking with his sister and her boyfriend, Kiseyinewakup, at a trailer in which they were living near Taber.

The couple got into an argument and Kiseyinewakup assaulted his girlfriend, prompting the two men to go outside to fight. They returned to the trailer after the confrontation, but when Kiseyinewakup assaulted his girlfriend a second time, the two men went outside again.

The following morning, Wahpistikwan’s sister awoke to find Kiseyinewakup wasn’t in the trailer. Wahpistikwan told her he didn’t know where he was and went to work.

The woman found blood outside in the dirt and followed drag marks to an irrigation canal, where she found Kiseyinewakup’s body.

Even though police found a bag of Wahpistikwan’s clothes covered in the victim’s blood, he claimed there was never any confrontation between himself and Kiseyinewakup, and he didn’t know what had happened. However, in a second police interview, Wahpistikwan admitted that during a fight Kiseyinewakup pulled a knife.

He said he managed to get control of the weapon and stabbed Kiseyinewakup, but he couldn’t remember where or how many times. Wahpistikwan began dragging Kiseyinewakup to the trailer, but decided to take his body to the canal when he realized he was dead.

Kiseyinewakup was stabbed several times, two of which fatally damaged his heart and another his lungs.

During sentencing arguments last February, Crown prosecutor Lisa Weich described a fight in which the stronger Wahpistikwan stabbed Kiseyinewakup several times with a butcher knife with such force that one wound was 20 centimetres deep.

Weich rejected lawyer Greg White’s assertion that his client functions at the level of a six-yearold, but White, who called Wahpistikwan a gentle giant, insisted his client’s moral culpability should be less because of his diminished mental capacity. Redman noted Thursday Wahpistikwan’s IQ is only 45 and he has a moderate mental handicap.

In addition to Wahpistikwan’s prison sentence, for which he was credited nearly three years for time he previously spent in custody, he must submit a sample of his DNA for the National DNA Databank. He is also prohibited for life from possessing firearms and other weapons.

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