Fort Smith, N.W.T., man pleads guilty to murder

A Fort Smith man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

The man can't be identified because he was a youth at the time he shot and killed the man during an early morning rampage in the community almost two years ago. He is now 19.

The man entered the guilty plea in N.W.T. Supreme Court in Yellowknife on Wednesday as four family members of the 50-year-old victim sat just meters away and other friends and relatives listened in to the proceedings by phone.

The man was dressed in a jail-issued pale green shirt. Though the youngest person in the courtroom, he was by far the biggest, standing almost six feet tall.

According to an agreed statement of facts read out by prosecutor Duane Praught, the evening of March 3, 2022 the man, then less than four months away from his 18th birthday, was socializing and drinking with relatives and friends in Fort Smith.

Shortly after midnight he walked into a residential area, broke into a garage and stole two screwdrivers. At 1:30 he broke into another garage and used the screwdrivers to open three gun safes. He broke the trigger lock off a shotgun he found in one, according to the agreed statement of facts.

About 10 minutes later he broke into another garage on Primrose Lane. The owner was inside. The youth shot him and then fled. He then broke into a government building where he stole firearms, ammunition and vehicle keys. He loaded the firearms into one of the government vehicles and drove off.

At 2:30 a.m. he drove by a home and fired four shots at it. There were two adults and two children inside, but none of them were hit.

The man then drove toward Fort Fitzgerald but eventually turned around, returning to Fort Smith at about 5 a.m. At 8:30 that morning the wife of the victim found his lifeless body in the garage.

Prosecutor Praught told the judge that he and the man's lawyer, Robin Parker, have agreed on what an appropriate sentence should be, but that will require an assessment to be done of the man. Praught did not say what kind of assessment he was referring to.

With the guilty plea, Praught withdrew four other charges the man was facing. The case is back in court on Jan. 15.

Under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the maximum sentence for second-degree murder is four years in custody followed by three years of supervision at a halfway house or some other facility other than prison.