Winnipeg Free Press
A 17-year-old man has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder after a
pregnant Winnipeg woman was brutally beaten and buried in a snowbank for
refusing to have an abortion, the Free Press has learned.
The motive behind the February 2007 death is emerging for the first time
after the young killer cut a deal with Manitoba justice officials.
Those are the facts we will be advancing, Crown attorney Brent Davidson
said Wednesday, admitting its one of the more disturbing cases his office
has seen.
The teen who cant be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act will not
be raised to adult court, where he would face a mandatory sentence of life
in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Instead, he will appear in provincial court on Tuesday and receive the
maximum YCJA sentence of 10 years.
Davidson said the only issue for a judge to determine is what ****tion of
that decade-long penalty will be served behind bars.
Under the YCJA, the maximum is six years custody and four years community
supervision.
Davidson said thats what hes asking for but expects defence lawyer Marty
Minuk to seek less jail and more time in the community.
Roxanne Fernando, 24 known to friends and family members as Apple was
found dead in a snowy ditch near Mollard Road and Ritchie Street in
northwest Winnipeg several days after she disappeared. Police believe her
frozen body had been deliberately concealed.
Police arrested the youth and two adults Nathanael Mark Plourde, 19 and
Jose Manuel Toruno, 19 and charged them with the most serious offence in
the Criminal Code. Plourde had previously dated Fernando, according to
Davidson.
The death of Fernandos unborn baby didnt result in an additional murder
charge because Canadian law, unlike the United States and other countries,
doesnt recognize a fetus as a living being. Fernando was in the early
stages of her pregnancy and had apparently kept it secret from many of her
close friends.
Plourde and Toruno remain before the courts, are presumed innocent and
none of the allegations against them has been proven. No preliminary
hearing or trial dates have been set and the facts being presented against
the youth have no bearing on their status.
Davidson said there are no deals in place requiring the youth to testify
against the co-accused, although its possible he could be subpoenaed down
the road.
Fernandos friends and family members had launched a desperate search that
included distributing missing persons posters and peppering the Internet
with her photo and police contact information by sending out e-mail alerts
to hundreds of people asking for assistance.
A brief video of Fernando was posted on the YouTube website, showing her
photo over the music of Coldplays Fix You. Winnipeg police also issued a
public notice in the days after Fernandos disappearance seeking
information.
Friends say when Fernando didnt return home or call on the night of Feb.
15, her family knew something was wrong because it was so out of character
for her.
She was not the type to go out and stay out all night, one friend told the
Free Press. She would always tell her family where she was.
Police believe Fernando was killed on the same day she went missing.
Fernando and her family had come to Canada from the Philippines in 2003.
She had been working as a banquet server at the downtown Radisson Hotel.
Her mother, Elisa, and sister, May, are expected to be in court next week
and will be giving victim impact statements, said Davidson.
A pre-sentence re****t has also been prepared for the teen. He had been
living with his family in north Winnipeg and will turn 18 in December. He
has been in custody at the Manitoba Youth Centre since his arrest nearly
eight months ago.
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If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament
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