Witness complications result in plea deal for machete killers

A Winnipeg man and woman who admit attacking and killing a woman with machetes have dodged possible convictions for first-degree murder after one of the main witnesses against them died and another disappeared.

Amos Joe Kematch and Leah Carol Clifton entered guilty pleas to second-degree murder Thursday in the February 2022 slaying of 26-year-old Heather Marie Cheyane Beardy. The pair’s guilty pleas came as the result of a plea bargain reached shortly before a jury was to be selected that same day in their impending trial.

The mandatory sentence for first-degree murder is life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. A conviction for second-degree murder also results in a mandatory life sentence, but parole eligibility can be set anywhere between 10 and 25 years.

The distinction between first- and second-degree murder is that first-degree murder refers to a killing that is both planned and deliberate, while second-degree murder refers to a killing that is deliberate, but not planned.

The plea bargain “is recognition that the Crown’s case relies on two witnesses, one of whom is deceased, the second of which is at warrant status on a witness warrant for this matter,” prosecutor Adam Gingera told King’s Bench Justice Rick Saull.

Court heard Beardy, two other women and the two accused were in a Spence Street apartment when Kematch, who was armed with a machete, attacked Beardy in a bedroom and directed her to walk to the washroom.

“She was directed into the tub, and there she was attacked, first by Mr. Kematch, and then by Ms. Clifton, with machetes,” killing her, Gingera said.

Kematch, 29, and Clifton, 36, will be sentenced at a later date, at which time an “expanded version of the facts” will be provided to court, Gingera said.

Clifton is already serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 20 years, after pleading guilty earlier this year to second-degree murder in the May 2022 killing of Doris Lydia Trout, three months after Beardy was killed.

Trout, a 25-year-old mother of four, was found dead in the stairwell of a Kennedy Street Manitoba Housing complex. Trout was found face-down, her hands zip-tied behind her back and showing signs she had been strangled.

Co-accused Meagan Beaulieu pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received the same sentence as Clifton last January.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca