Teen co-accused in fatal Point Douglas beatings pleads guilty to 2nd-degree murder charges

WARNING: This story contains descriptions of violent assaults and injuries.

A teenage boy pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in a string of violent Point Douglas beatings that left his bloody handprints as evidence in an apartment suite where a victim was found dead. 

The youth was 15 at the time of the attacks and sat in court Monday during a hearing before Manitoba Court of King's Bench Justice Shawn Greenberg to plead guilty in the killings of Danielle Dawn Ballantyne, 36, and Marvin William Felix, 54. 

A charge of first-degree murder in connection with the death of Troy Baguley, 51, was withdrawn, Crown attorney Lisa Carson said. All three victims suffered fatal beatings on Aug. 22, 2022, within a couple blocks of each other.

Winnipeg police found Ballantyne lying on the second floor in an apartment building on Jarvis Avenue near Main Street around 7 a.m. on Aug. 22, 2022.

The mother of four from Misipawistik First Nation sustained injuries to the left side of her head. Broken glass, a backpack and a purse were scattered next to her body near a pool of blood, according to an agreed statement of facts. 

"There were two handprint impressions observed on the walls above Ballantyne as well as footwear impressions on the victim's back," Carson said.

"The comparison done on the handprints found them to be a match to the right and left palms of [the teen]."

Crown seeks adult sentence

Court heard the teen, now 17, and his co-accused — who was also 15 at the time, and pleaded guilty to manslaughter and two counts of second-degree murder last week — were reported missing from a Wolseley-area group home on the evening of Aug. 21.

Carson previously said both youth had returned to the group home around 8:25 a.m. the next day, but the agreed statement of facts presented in the youth's case Monday said he had been missing from the home since Aug. 9 and had called staff asking to be picked up from an apartment downtown around noon on Aug. 22. 

"This request was denied as he had a warrant out for him," Carson said. 

Court heard the bloodshed in the neighbourhood began at 4:19 a.m. where the teen and his co-accused, now 18, punched, kicked and jumped on Baguley before dragging his body to a parking lot on Main Street, between Jarvis and Sutherland avenues.

During the first attack, the teens were approached by a 13-year-old boy and Tristan Colten Moose, then 20, who joined in the beating, which was caught on video surveillance and lasted approximately seven minutes, court heard.

The online registry system for Manitoba's Court of King's Bench shows Moose, who was initially charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty to aggravated assault in December.

Baguley suffered a traumatic brain injury and a total loss of cognitive capacity. He was removed from life support on March 3, 2023.  

Shortly after beating him, the teen and his co-accused walked down an alleyway and came across Felix who was sleeping in his wheelchair near the Bell Hotel on Main Street. The teens punched and dragged him to the ground and then stomped on his head multiple times, court heard.

Felix, who's from the northern community of Berens River, was taken to hospital in unstable condition and died on Aug. 26, 2022, from a blunt force injury to his head, which fractured his skull, left cheek and jaw. 

His family said he used a wheelchair after having his leg amputated and lived in the city for medical reasons. 

The teen was arrested on Aug. 27, 2022, in Long Plain First Nation, court head. A witness turned over a jacket believed to belong to the teen that had DNA matching Ballantyne. 

The other teen was arrested four days earlier at a business on Wall Street in the city wearing a hat that had blood on it and a T-shirt, consistent with what was seen on video surveillance.

Police also seized a pair of shoes at the group home, belonging to the co-accused, which had blood on them that was a match for Baguley and DNA from Ballantyne. 

The Crown is recommending both youths be sentenced as adults, which would mean an automatic life sentence. 

Defence lawyers Zach Kinahan and Matthew Gould are seeking a youth sentence for the teen who appeared in court Monday. The maximum youth sentence for second-degree murder is seven years — up to four years in custody, with up to another three years of probation.

"The judge has the final say as to the appropriate sentence that you'll receive," Kinahan told the youth in court. 

Greenberg reserved her decision on his sentencing.