Stony inmate gets life for prison slaying

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This article was published 15/10/2019 (1648 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Stony Mountain Institution inmate has been sentenced to life in prison for his part in a fatal attack on another prisoner.

Kevin Edwards, 30, pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder in the April 22 killing of 42-year-old Adrian Fillion.

Court heard Edwards and two co-accused, Peter Fisher and Aaron Michael Ducharme, targeted Fillion because he was a sex offender.

Prior to Fillion’s killing, another inmate overheard the three accused say “a skinner is getting it tonight,” Crown attorney Joel Myskiw told Queen’s Bench Justice Anne Turner. “Skinner” is prison slang for a sex offender.

“That was it for the evidence of animosity between the three co-accused and the victim,” Myskiw said. “As far as the Crown knows, the victim was targeted solely because he was a sex offender.”

Court was told that Fillion was walking from his cell to a common area, when Ducharme lured him back to his cell on the pretext of giving him some drugs. Within seconds of Ducharme leaving, Fisher, armed with a makeshift knife, and Edwards, entered Fillion’s cell.

The two men stabbed Fillion approximately 26 times each before leaving the cell just over a minute later. Prison security video captured what occurred outside the cell, but not the killing.

“Several inmates observed the attack, but none intervened,” Myskiw said.

Fillion activated an emergency alarm in his cell, but was found unresponsive when prison staff arrived. He was pronounced dead in hospital two hours later.

After the stabbing, Edwards and Fisher proceeded directly to a shower area “we say, to wash off Mr. Fillion’s blood and to change clothes,” Myskiw said.

Fillion’s brother told court the two had been estranged but were in the process of repairing their relationship at the time of his killing.

“Because of his choices, he may have been your enemy, but it was not for you to decide his fate and carry out his punishment,” Aaron Fillion said.

“Having said that… you have given us a huge step forward in the healing process by coming forward and admitting guilt.”

Edwards recognized the evidence against him was “significant” and didn’t want to make excuses for the killing, said his lawyer Matt Gould.

“He has done everything in his power to move this to completion as quickly as possible,” Gould said.

At the time of the killing, Edwards was serving a nine-year sentence for multiple weapons, assault and robbery offences.

Fisher, 27, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in August and was sentenced to life in prison. Fisher was serving a life sentence for the 2012 killing of a Kenora, Ont., man.

Ducharme, 31, is still before the courts.

Fillion was one of five inmates killed as a result of inmate-on-inmate violence at Stony Mountain penitentiary in an 18-month period.

In a recent email to the Free Press, a Correctional Service Canada spokesperson declined to specifically detail what security measures, if any, have been taken to prevent similar deaths in the future at the prison.

“Correctional Service Canada has launched investigations into the circumstances surrounding the incidents at Stony Mountain Institution to determine if practices need improvement and to prevent recurrences,” the spokesperson wrote. “While some of the investigations related to these incidents are still ongoing… investigation findings and best practices are routinely shared with management to support continuous improvement.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca