‘Just horrible’: Manitoba man who killed partner, 2 children sentenced to life

WINNIPEG — A woman told court Thursday that years of counselling and medications have failed to keep away nightmares about the gruesome killings of her daughter and two young grandchildren.

Tammi St. Jean told a sentencing hearing in Winnipeg about the roller-coaster of emotions she has had since the slayings in 2022.

Trevis McLeod earlier pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the deaths of his common-law partner and their children. He was handed an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for 16 years.

“My heart and mind cannot comprehend how someone can murder their family in such a cold, calculated and brutal manner,” St. Jean wrote in a victim impact statement read aloud by Crown attorney Dayna Queau-Guzzi.

“I hope and pray that when the time comes for him to leave prison, that he leaves it in the same way that my daughter and grandchildren left that house.”

McLeod, 52, admitted in September to the slayings after a forensic assessment found he had not suffered from a mental disorder.

Shantelle Murphy, 32, six-year-old Isabella Murphy and three-year-old Mason Murphy, were found dead in the family’s duplex in Portage la Prairie, west of Winnipeg.

Fire crews were initially called to the home after neighbours reported the unit was ablaze. The victims were found dead in two upstairs bedrooms.

Court heard the woman and children were “viciously bludgeoned” and suffered extensive injuries to their faces and bodies.

“The victims were all murdered in their home while they were sleeping in their beds, a place where they should have felt the safest. The victims in this case were truly innocent,” said Queau-Guzzi.

A finding of second-degree murder comes with a life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.

Queau-Guzzi said the Crown and defence jointly recommended 16 years, as it saved relatives from having to endure a trial.

Court heard McLeod had a history with drug addiction that led to drug-induced hallucinations and delusions. He had previously received medical treatment for paranoia and drug addiction.

At the time of the slayings, he was experiencing delusions that Murphy and others were sexually abusing Isabella and Mason.

A psychiatric assessment this year determined McLeod had not experienced a mental disorder that would exempt him from criminal responsibility. He didn’t contest the report.

Wearing a T-shirt and pants issued to inmates, McLeod sat in the prisoner’s box with his head bent low, staring at the floor, during most of Thursday’s hearing.

He later read a short statement.

“I would like to apologize for my actions that ended the lives of three people I loved very much. There isn’t a day that I don’t think of them and I wish I could go back and gotten help,” he said.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin agreed to the recommended 16-year parole period.

“It’s horrible, just horrible,” the judge said, calling it “one of the worst cases I’ve dealt with in my career.”

“At the end of the day, nothing takes away the pain, nothing takes away the shock.”

An agreed statement of facts detailed what unfolded the morning of April 10, 2022.

McLeod told a psychiatrist shortly after his arrest that he believed a scheme existed to sexually traffic Isabella and Mason.

And he said he believed he needed to kill the children to protect them from further exploitation, Queau-Guzzi said.

McLeod admitted to having seven or eight beers at the family home. He found a metal pipe and used it to bludgeon Murphy and the two children.

Before leaving the house, McLeod woke his adult son from a previous relationship, who was sleeping in a bedroom on the main floor, and lit some of Isabella’s school drawings on fire in the living room.

McLeod’s older son left to go a relative’s home nearby. Court heard McLeod then visited several other homes in Portage la Prairie, including his sister’s, where he punched her in the face and told her, “This is all your fault.”

Court heard McLeod eventually made his way to a stranger’s home, telling the owner that he needed help after he had been pushed into a ditch. The owner called her firefighter husband, who was working on the blaze at McLeod’s home.

McLeod was arrested soon after.

Police found blood on McLeod’s shirt, sweater, jacket and pants. He was also carrying a knife.

Forensic testing determined blood on the sweater belonged to Murphy and Isabella. None of the victims’ blood was found on the knife.

Murphy’s father had urged the judge to hand down a sentence that matched the horror inflicted on his family.

“I lost not only the lives of my daughter and grandchildren that night, but all the future joy they would have brought to my life,” Patrick Murphy wrote in his victim impact statement.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Oct. 24, 2024.

Brittany Hobson, The Canadian Press