Indigenous women were targeted ‘as though they were garbage’
Defence to argue killer not liable for deaths due to mental illness
The opening day of the murder trial of Jeremy Skibicki heard he targeted vulnerable Indigenous women at Winnipeg homeless shelters and, while being questioned by police in one gruesome killing, blurted out that there were three more victims.
“I killed four people,” Skibicki is heard telling police unprompted in an interrogation video played Wednesday at the trial in Court of King’s Bench.
Skibicki is charged with four counts of first-degree murder for the slayings in the early months of 2022.
The 37-year-old has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers told court earlier this week Skibicki admits to the killings but is not criminally responsible due to mental illness.
“This case is about a man’s hatefilled and cruel acts perpetrated against four vulnerable Indigenous women,” prosecutor Renee Lagimodiere told Chief Justice Glenn Joyal.
She said Skibicki staked out homeless shelters to find his victims then devised a carefully calculated scheme about what he would do with them.
“He preyed on these women in Winnipeg shelters and invited them back to his home, where he assaulted them, often sexually, and killed them,” Lagimodiere told the judge-alone trial.
“He engaged in vile, sexual acts with their bodies. He then disposed of the women as though they were garbage.”
Skibicki is charged in the killings of Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and an unidentified woman Indigenous leaders have named Buffalo Woman.
The remains of Contois were found in a dumpster and at a landfill. The remains of Harris and Myran are believed to be in a different landfill. Police have said it’s not known where the remains of Buffalo Woman are located.
Harris and Myran were both members of Long Plain First Nation but lived in Winnipeg. Contois was from O-Chi-Chak-Ko-Sipi First Nation, also known as Crane River.
A finding of not criminally responsible means an accused was incapable of appreciating the nature and quality of an act due to a mental disorder.
In an interview earlier this week with The Canadian Press, law professor Brandon Trask said such a defence presents multiple challenges for Skibicki’s lawyers.
Once a mental illness has been established, Trask said, it comes down to whether the diagnosis made Skibicki incapable of knowing the slayings were wrong.
“This is not the sort of a case where there’s a single victim, a single moment in time. This is a situation involving four victims across presumably a lengthier period in time,” said Trask, an assistant professor of law at the University of Manitoba.
“This is going to be very challenging for the defence, very complex and very technical.”
Defence lawyers have said Jeremy Skibicki admits to the slayings but should be found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder