Victim's mother's 'heart aches all the time,' court hears during sentencing for 2022 stabbing

Enrique George Courchene's mother says she wishes she could wake up from the nightmare of her son's death. 

"I miss my baby boy every day. My heart aches all the time," Doris Courchene wrote in a victim impact statement, read aloud by Enrique Courchene's aunt and godmother Dolores Courchene at a sentencing hearing Thursday.

Enrique Courchene, 29, was fatally stabbed outside a beer vendor on Arlington Street near Logan Avenue in 2022.

A dozen of the victim's family members were in a sweetgrass-smudged courtroom for the sentencing hearing at Court of King's Bench in Winnipeg, some wearing T-shirts with the deceased's face on them. There were 22 victim impact statements submitted by the Crown for the hearing.

Court heard Enrique Courchene was an impressive and exceptional young man who took the time to be a helper and learn the family's cultural ways. The family is Sagkeeng Anicinabe.

"My heart broke when I got the call that he was attacked and hurt," said Dolores Courchene. "We all met at the hospital, and stayed until he passed."

Jade Allen Dumas, Calvin Harvey Maytwayashing and Cecil Vance Roulette were charged with second-degree murder shortly after Enrique Courchene was killed.

Dumas and Maytwayashing, both 26 at the time they were charged, were found not guilty by a jury in November.

Roulette, 39, was found guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter in Enrique Courchene's death.

Victim's shirt covered in blood

Court heard security footage showed Enrique Courchene and his brother Ernesto Courchene were at the beer vendor the night of the killing around 1:10 a.m., the same time as Roulette and his two co-accused.

"While inside the vendor, all involved parties seemed to be getting along. They were laughing, shaking hands and shouting," said Crown prosecutor Julia Negrea.

The group then moved outside, where Dumas punched Ernesto Courchene in the face, which knocked him to the ground. Roulette then pulled out a knife and cut a chain necklace from his neck, Negrea said.

Court heard that Enrique Courchene saw his brother on the ground and jumped in to defend him, wrestling Roulette to the ground.

Roulette then got up and stabbed Enrique Courchene seven times in the chest and back, with the knife penetrating his chest as deep as 15 centimetres, Negrea said.

Enrique Courchene's shirt was covered in blood when the men briefly separated. Security footage shows the two groups walking around separate ends of Enrique Courchene's truck as he went inside the vehicle, the prosecution said.

"Roulette then stabs Enrique in the leg twice more and the three of them walk away, leaving Enrique to die," said Negrea.

Defence lawyer Pam Smith said Roulette, Dumas and Maytwayashing walked away because Enrique Courchene seemed to be OK, and added he was walking fine in the security video.

Smith said Roulette was simply trying to get Enrique Courchene off of him and couldn't see while flailing with the knife.

The defence argued the original fight started because Ernesto Courchene was posturing with the men, saying he belonged to a well-known gang in Manitoba. Roulette took the necklace in response, she said.

Smith said the reason Roulette went to the truck after Enrique Courchene was because there was talk of getting a gun and the men were fearful.

'Closer to murder than to accident': Crown

Roulette alternated between looking straight ahead and at the floor during sentencing arguments made by the defence and prosecution.

"I'd like to say I'm sorry for everything that happened. Wish it didn't happen. I know it's hard on the family and everything," he said.

Roulette has a prior conviction of aggravated assault in 2005 for which he served 34 months, court heard.

The prosecution said Roulette's criminal history means he should not have leniency in sentencing. The Crown is seeking a sentence of 13 years minus time served, for a total of nine years and seven months.

"Walking around armed and using violence still remained an option to him," said Negrea. "The Crown's position is that in this case, this was indeed closer to murder than to accident."

The defence argued Roulette should not be denied leniency over a conviction that is 20 years old, and asked for him to be sentenced to five years.

"He served his time, he got out and he stayed out of trouble," Smith said. "Unfortunately, on this particular night he found himself in a situation where he overreacted."

The Crown prosecutor said during trial Roulette had testified he had been badly assaulted before and carried the knife for protection.

"OK, you shouldn't carry a knife around for protection. Easy for us to say, we don't live in the north end," said defence lawyer Smith.

Both the Crown and defence argued over the moral culpability of the accused and how the judge should weigh the Gladue factors — systemic and background factors that affect Indigenous people — while deciding how much time Roulette will serve. 

Roulette is Gaa-ginooshkodeyaag, Long Plain First Nation, and is from Winnipeg.

Crown prosecutor Negrea said those kinds of factors often don't only affect the accused person, but also victims — and the defendant was not the only vulnerable person in the case.

"As the family of the victim expressed to me, many people have trauma in their backgrounds and don't commit homicide," said Negrea.

Roulette is expected to be sentenced on Jan. 22.