15-year-old boy pleads guilty to 2nd-degree murder and manslaughter in 2022 in Point Douglas

WARNING: This story contains disturbing details.

A 15-year-old boy has pleaded guilty to manslaughter and two counts of second-degree murder in the violent beating of three people in the Point Douglas area.

Danielle Dawn Ballantyne, 36, was found dead in an apartment building on Jarvis Avenue near Main Street around 7 a.m. on August 22, 2022.

Troy Baguli, 51, and Marvin William Felix, 54, were also found injured earlier that morning — a couple of blocks from where Ballantine was found — and both later died of their injuries, according to an agreed statement of facts filed in Manitoba court. of the King’s Bench during a youth hearing Tuesday before Judge Sean Greenberg.

The court heard the boy went missing from a group home in the Wolseley area on the evening of August 21, along with another 15-year-old boy who has also been charged over the death.

The boys returned to the group around 8:25 the next day.

Another teenager is scheduled to appear in court.

The agreed statement of facts said the boy and his co-defendants punched, kicked and jumped on Bagula about 4:19 a.m. before dragging his body to a parking lot on Main Street, between Jarvis and Sutherland avenues.

The teenagers were approached by a 13-year-old boy and a man who joined in beating Baguli as the victim lay motionless on the ground, Crown prosecutor Lisa Carson said.

Police officers examine the parking lot on Main Street between Sutherland Avenue and Jarvis Avenue where Troy Baguli was found critically injured on August 22, 2022. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

The beating, which lasted about seven minutes and was caught on video surveillance from across the parking lot, left Baguley with a brain injury and total cognitive loss.

“His condition was not expected to improve for the rest of his life,” Carson said.

On March 3, 2023, Bagulei was disconnected from life support. According to the results of the autopsy, the cause of death was blunt force trauma.

“Absolutely unprovoked” attack on a man in a wheelchair

Shortly after the man was beaten, the 15-year-olds approached Felix, who was sleeping in a wheelchair on Main Street outside the Bell Hotel, the court heard.

“Felix was attacked completely unprovoked,” Carson said. As the court heard, the teenagers punched him and knocked him to the ground, and then stomped on his head several times.

Felix was taken to the hospital in an unstable condition and died on August 26, 2022 from blunt force trauma to the head, which fractured his skull, left cheek and jaw.

Marvin William Felix, 54, was attacked in Winnipeg on August 22, 2022 and died four days later from his injuries. (Submitted by Felix’s family)

His family said he used a wheelchair after his leg was amputated. They said he was originally from the northern community of Berens River but lived in the city for medical reasons.

Police were alerted to Ballantyne’s death around 7 a.m. when they were at the scene, involving Baguli, about half a block away, the court heard.

The Missipawistik mother of four was found lying on the second floor of an apartment building with serious head injuries.

Broken glass, a backpack and a purse were strewn near her body next to a pool of blood, the court was told. The victim’s back was left with shoe prints similar to those seen where Baguley was found.

Relatives of Danielle Ballantyne gather around a photo of the 36-year-old mother of four during a service in Point Douglas. The teenager pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. Another teenager is due to appear in court. (James Turner/CBC)

The teenager, who pleaded guilty Tuesday, was arrested on Aug. 23, 2022, when he was found in a Wall Street office wearing a bloody hat and T-shirt, matching surveillance footage.

Police recovered a group of shoes from the home that belonged to the teenager, which also had blood on them that matched Baguly and Ballantyne’s DNA.

Crown attorneys Carson and Jody Coffman are recommending that the teenager be tried as an adult, which would mean an automatic life sentence.

Defense attorneys Laura Robinson and Morgan Lawrence argued he should be sentenced as a youth. The maximum sentence for juveniles for second-degree murder is seven years — up to four years of detention with a probationary period of up to three years.

“We’re going to ask the court to sentence you as a youth, but you understand that’s going to be up to the judge,” Robinson told the teenager in court, sitting silently in the prison box.

Judge Greenberg deferred her decision on his sentence.