‘A case of indescribable viciousness’: Regina man who killed his wife ineligible for parole until 2034

WARNING: Story contains graphic content. 

Jason McKay must serve 17 years of his life sentence before he is eligible for parole, a Regina King’s Bench judge ruled this week.

McKay pleaded guilty to second-degree murder last month for killing his 33-year-old wife Jenny McKay in 2017. He entered the plea on the eve of his second trial after successfully appealing his first second-degree murder conviction in 2020.  

In her written decision on his parole eligibility, released Tuesday, Justice Beverly Klatt said there were “few mitigating factors” to consider in the case, which she described as one of “indescribable viciousness."

An autopsy report and the agreed statement of facts in the case said McKay stabbed or cut his wife 24 times at a home in Regina.

“The nature of the wounds show that Jason was intent on inflicting terror on Jenny,” Klatt wrote, noting several of the wounds were inflicted after Jenny McKay died and that McKay took photos of her body after killing her. 

“This utter disrespect and contempt for both human life and for a person's body after death, is difficult to comprehend. It is even more difficult to find words to adequately describe the horror of the manner of the killing in this case,” wrote Klatt.

“The impact on Jenny's family has been devastating,” she wrote, adding that the pain described in each one of her family’s victim impact statements “is palpable.”

She said the murder also harmed McKay’s daughters, “who came to know and love Jenny,” and his mother, “who is grief-stricken.” 

“The horrific facts, described at the first trial and during sentencing, will leave a lasting imprint in their minds,” Klatt wrote.  

In a victim impact statement submitted after McKay’s first trial, Jenny’s mother, Glenda Campbell, said McKay’s guilty plea “does not make everything OK.” 

“We have an emptiness and yearning that occupies our every space," she wrote.

Klatt wrote that she found McKay's guilty plea to be only “marginally mitigating,” since it was made so close to the date when his second trial was set to begin. 

McKay spent years fighting the murder charge in court before admitting he intentionally killed Jenny.