Man found guilty of manslaughter, aggravated assault in pair of 2019 central Edmonton stabbings

A man charged in a pair of stabbings in central Edmonton seven years ago has been found guilty of manslaughter. 

Clayton Berard, 45, was found guilty of manslaughter and aggravated assault on Monday. The charges stem from two separate incidents in 2019. 

The first victim was 48-year-old Ida Rosalie Knife, known as Rose Knife. She was fatally stabbed on the morning of March 28, 2019, shortly after leaving the George Spady Centre. 

Court heard she had spent the night at the shelter and was leaving around 7 a.m. when she was attacked.

Witness testimony during the trial described Knife as a familiar presence at the shelter, known for her loud and playful personality. 

On the morning of her death, a staff member said she had been yelling at others to wake up before an argument broke out shortly before she left.

The staff member told the court she did not know who the man that was yelling back at her was, and didn’t get a good look at his face.

She was stabbed multiple times and later died in hospital.

Justice Thomas Rothwell said the Crown’s case relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, citing a lack of eyewitness testimony directly identifying the attacker. However, he concluded Berard was responsible for the attack.

Rothwell said the evidence left him with a reasonable doubt about whether Berard intended to kill either victim, after a forensic psychiatrist found he was likely in active psychosis at the time of the killings.

Hours after Knife’s death, staff at Boyle Street Community Services began setting up a memorial space as news of the attack spread through the community. 

A former community safety liaison at Boyle Street, testified during the trial that Berard had been sitting alone inside the drop-in centre for an extended period that day, behaviour he described as unusual. 

About 12 hours after the fatal stabbing, a second attack occurred outside Boyle Street Community Services.

Albert Stevens, a man in his late 40s, was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and face. He survived after undergoing several surgeries.