A Winnipeg sex trade worker with a history of mental illness admitted killing a frail customer following a dispute over payment.
Mary Ellen Thomas, 31, pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder for the July 2010 slaying of 62-year-old Michael Allan inside his Nassau Street South home. She also admitted to randomly stabbing an 18-year-old girl at a nearby convenience store just after the homicide. Thomas was given a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
Allan offered up no resistance to the attack, thanks largely to his blood-alcohol level of nearly four times the legal limit. He was also suffering from tuberculosis and was just 112 pounds despite standing six-foot-two, court was told. An autopsy revealed dozens of injuries throughout his body, including brain trauma, 14 broken ribs, a broken neck and deep cuts to this throat and face.
"I can’t even imagine the energy it would have taken to inflict those injuries and the suffering Mr. Allan went through," Queen’s Bench Justice John Menzies said Tuesday.
Thomas told police she "lost it and went crazy" on Allan after he accused her of stealing his wallet after hiring her for sex, said Crown attorney Mark Kantor. She repeatedly kicked and punched him in the face and body, smashed a lamp over his head and then pushed him down a flight of stairs. Thomas was high on crack cocaine and drunk at the time of the deadly attack.
"I have remorse for what I did. When I’m drunk and on the streets I’m a different person," she said Tuesday in court. "I wish it wouldn’t have happened this way. When we first met it was nice, we laughed and we talked. But then we started drinking."
Defence lawyer Pam Smith described her client’s tragic upbringing on a Manitoba reserve filled with abuse, neglect and addiction.
"You’re a classic example of everything that’s gone wrong for aboriginal people in this province," Menzies said upon hearing her background.
Thomas has an extensive history with the criminal justice system and hallucinates and hears voices when she goes off her medication for schizophrenia, court was told.
She was arrested on July 20, 2010 after allegedly using a shovel to smash a truck that belonged to a British Columbia man she’d recently met online. She spent three nights behind bars until provincial court Judge Mary Curtis agreed to free her on bail.
The Crown fought to keep her locked up, noting she had more than two dozen prior convictions for crimes spanning nearly 15 years including prostitution, theft, assault and breaching court orders. Thomas also had her statutory release from prison revoked in 2008 for violating terms of her release. The Crown said there is a common theme to many of Thomas’ prior offences — they involve meeting men, consuming large amounts of alcohol and then turning violent.
Curtis ordered Thomas to abide by conditions, including an order to abstain from alcohol and observe a nightly curfew. However, a warrant was issued for her arrest on July 28 after she allegedly failed to report to bail supervision. It wouldn’t be executed until police arrested her inside Allan’s home three days later and charged her with his killing.
Mervin Forbister, the victim’s brother-in- law, told the Free Press Allan was a well-educated man who recently came back to Winnipeg from Saskatoon so his family could help care for him as he grappled with alcoholism and loneliness.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/br...pleads-guilty-to-fatal-rampage-135117783.html
Mary Ellen Thomas, 31, pleaded guilty Tuesday to second-degree murder for the July 2010 slaying of 62-year-old Michael Allan inside his Nassau Street South home. She also admitted to randomly stabbing an 18-year-old girl at a nearby convenience store just after the homicide. Thomas was given a mandatory life sentence with no chance of parole for at least 10 years.
Allan offered up no resistance to the attack, thanks largely to his blood-alcohol level of nearly four times the legal limit. He was also suffering from tuberculosis and was just 112 pounds despite standing six-foot-two, court was told. An autopsy revealed dozens of injuries throughout his body, including brain trauma, 14 broken ribs, a broken neck and deep cuts to this throat and face.
"I can’t even imagine the energy it would have taken to inflict those injuries and the suffering Mr. Allan went through," Queen’s Bench Justice John Menzies said Tuesday.
Thomas told police she "lost it and went crazy" on Allan after he accused her of stealing his wallet after hiring her for sex, said Crown attorney Mark Kantor. She repeatedly kicked and punched him in the face and body, smashed a lamp over his head and then pushed him down a flight of stairs. Thomas was high on crack cocaine and drunk at the time of the deadly attack.
"I have remorse for what I did. When I’m drunk and on the streets I’m a different person," she said Tuesday in court. "I wish it wouldn’t have happened this way. When we first met it was nice, we laughed and we talked. But then we started drinking."
Defence lawyer Pam Smith described her client’s tragic upbringing on a Manitoba reserve filled with abuse, neglect and addiction.
"You’re a classic example of everything that’s gone wrong for aboriginal people in this province," Menzies said upon hearing her background.
Thomas has an extensive history with the criminal justice system and hallucinates and hears voices when she goes off her medication for schizophrenia, court was told.
She was arrested on July 20, 2010 after allegedly using a shovel to smash a truck that belonged to a British Columbia man she’d recently met online. She spent three nights behind bars until provincial court Judge Mary Curtis agreed to free her on bail.
The Crown fought to keep her locked up, noting she had more than two dozen prior convictions for crimes spanning nearly 15 years including prostitution, theft, assault and breaching court orders. Thomas also had her statutory release from prison revoked in 2008 for violating terms of her release. The Crown said there is a common theme to many of Thomas’ prior offences — they involve meeting men, consuming large amounts of alcohol and then turning violent.
Curtis ordered Thomas to abide by conditions, including an order to abstain from alcohol and observe a nightly curfew. However, a warrant was issued for her arrest on July 28 after she allegedly failed to report to bail supervision. It wouldn’t be executed until police arrested her inside Allan’s home three days later and charged her with his killing.
Mervin Forbister, the victim’s brother-in- law, told the Free Press Allan was a well-educated man who recently came back to Winnipeg from Saskatoon so his family could help care for him as he grappled with alcoholism and loneliness.
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/br...pleads-guilty-to-fatal-rampage-135117783.html
