Man guilty of manslaughter in fatal stabbing outside Mount Royal Hotel in Winnipeg

Posted on October 18, 2024 by Peggy

There’s no question that Elijah Moneyas fatally stabbed Brian Edward Anderson outside a Higgins Avenue hotel in August 2022, but there is doubt about his intent to kill, a judge has ruled.

Anderson was stabbed three times in the upper left side of his body on Aug. 17, 2002, after a dispute near Winnipeg’s Mount Royal Hotel.

The wounds to his temple and upper back were not life-threatening, but one just above the clavicle caused his death, says the written judgment of King’s Bench Justice Sarah Innes, released Wednesday.

Moneyas, now 22, had been charged with second-degree murder, but Innes instead found him guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter.

“There is no direct evidence of Mr. Moneyas’ intent when he stabbed Mr. Anderson. I recognize this is not uncommon, [as] proof of intent often rests entirely on circumstantial proof,” Innes wrote in the 31-page judgment.

“The Crown must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an inference of guilt is the only reasonable inference based upon the circumstantial evidence and I am not satisfied they have done so in this case. It is not sufficient that I believe that the defendant is probably guilty.”

When police arrived just after 3 a.m., they found Anderson critically injured. He was rushed to hospital and pronounced dead.

Moneyas and the group he was with ran from the area before officers arrived. He was identified and arrested a week later at a suite on Blake Street, in the city’s Weston neighbourhood.

Police also seized a pair of bloodstained shoes from the suite, the judgment says. A swab of the inside heel area of the right shoe recovered DNA that matched Moneyas, while DNA from three swabbed areas on the exterior of the right shoe matched Anderson.

Moneyas’s lawyers argued the Crown failed to prove he committed the stabbing or was even involved in the altercation at all — that one or more of the others in the group were guilty instead.

They also argued that, should Innes believe Moneyas was responsible, he should be acquitted for acting in self-defence.

Moneyas seen with knife

Innes flatly rejected those arguments, writing in her judgment that surveillance videos from the hotel and other locations tell another story.

The person who committed the stabbing was wearing a distinct jacket that is seen being worn by Moneyas before and after the killing.

He is also seen holding a knife after the stabbing while walking backwards toward the hotel.

While a forensic pathologist could not rule out the possibility that more than one weapon was used, he testified during the trial that the nature of the wounds were consistent with having been caused by the same weapon.

Moneyas didn’t testify at the trial but his statement to police was used as evidence.

He initially denied any involvement or even being present, then tried to implicate others before finally admitting to the stabbing and identifying himself as the one in all the video evidence.

Moneyas claimed he retaliated after Anderson punched him, but evidence shows Moneyas ran, not walked, toward Anderson, who stood still in the roadway. Moneyas threw his right arm forward as he launched at Anderson, Innes wrote.

Willingness to fight

The struggle goes off camera for approximately three seconds, which the defence tried to use to create doubt in the Crown’s case. But Innes said the knife is still in Moneyas’s hand.

Moneyas also told police he was extremely drunk and high, but Innes said there are no observable signs of impairment in his movements or behaviour on the video. In fact, he kept his balance after knocking Anderson down.

Innes acknowledged that Anderson showed a willingness to fight, egging Moneyas on with swears and gestures as he stood on the road.

“A reasonable person in Mr. Moneyas’s situation would believe that a threat of force was being made against them,” she wrote.

However, Moneyas could have easily walked away. Anderson was described by the pathologist as morbidly obese, while Moneyas was slim and nimble and could have easily escaped any efforts by Anderson to chase him.

Instead, “Moneyas introduced a knife to a fist fight,” which undermines “the assertion that Mr. Moneyas was only seeking to protect himself and was not the aggressor,” Innes wrote.

But while he clearly used a knife to get the upper hand against a much larger man, this does not mean Moneyas intended to kill Anderson, she wrote.

Sentencing is expected Dec 3.