A Portage la Prairie man has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the slayings of his wife and two children after a psychiatric assessment found he was not suffering from a mental disorder at the time of their deaths.
Standing in the prisoner’s box flanked by his lawyers, Trevis Zane McLeod appeared calm and relaxed as he confirmed his guilt in a Winnipeg courtroom Friday afternoon.
McLeod, 52, will return to court Oct. 24 at which time Crown and defence lawyers will jointly recommend he be sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 16 years.
Trevis Zane McLeod
McLeod’s 32-year-old common-law wife Shantelle Murphy, and their two children, six-year-old Isabella and three-year-old Mason, were bludgeoned to death inside their Portage la Prairie duplex, which McLeod then set on fire, April 10, 2022.
McLeod has a history of drug addiction and methamphetamine use. A court-ordered forensic assessment completed last month found no evidence that he was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the deaths that would exempt him from criminal responsibility.
“This conclusion is not being contested by the accused,” Crown attorney Dayna Queau-Guzzi told King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin.
Details of the murders and McLeod’s alleged motivation were made public for the first time in an agreed statement of facts read out in court.
According to a psychiatric assessment completed shortly after his arrest, McLeod alleged he was experiencing delusions and hallucinations that Murphy and other “bad actors” were sexually abusing the children and were scheming to sexually traffic them.
“He determined that he needed to kill both Isabella and Mason to prevent them from being further sexually exploited,” Queau-Guzzi told court, reading from the agreed statement of facts.
McLeod said on the night of the murders he drank seven or eight beers in the living room before grabbing a large metal pipe. An hour later he went to the children’s bedroom, told them he loved them and then bludgeoned each of them in the head.
McLeod then went into the master bedroom, awakening Murphy before killing her.
McLeod knocked on the bedroom door of his adult son from another relationship, and told him they had to leave. Court heard the man lives with cognitive challenges and has been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Before exiting the house, McLeod lit some of Isabella’s drawings on fire in the living room.
Neighbours in the adjoining duplex unit reported hearing loud banging noises around 12:40 a.m. and then the smell of smoke before a fire alarm went off. As they left the building with their children, the neighbours saw McLeod exiting his unit with a “blank look on his face.”
Minutes later, McLeod was banging on a window at his brother’s house, appearing “out of it” and saying “they’re dead,” his brother told investigators. McLeod moved on to the home of his sister, who he punched in the face, saying, “This is your fault.”
“I am so relieved that I don’t have to face this monster in court.”–Killer’s former partner
Two-and-a-half hours later, with blood on his pants, shirt and jacket, McLeod knocked on a stranger’s door, claiming he had been pushed into a ditch and asking that a taxi be called for him. The woman called her husband, a firefighter who, at that moment, was working to extinguish the blaze at McLeod’s house.
RCMP were alerted to McLeod’s location and he was arrested a short time later, says the agreed statement of facts.
Court records show he was charged with one count of simple assault and released later that same day. It wasn’t until five days later that he was re-arrested and charged with arson and three counts of murder.
Autopsies concluded the children each died from a combination of blunt trauma to the head and smoke inhalation, leading the Crown to initially indict McLeod for first-degree murder in their deaths, on the basis they had been forcibly confined.
“However, given the significant blunt-force injuries, we acknowledge that a finding of… first-degree murder was by no means certain,” Queau-Guzzi said. “In addition, we are acutely aware of the family’s interest in the accused having accepted responsibility and for them not having to endure a trial, where the issue would have (been) his mental state at the time of the killings. His acceptance that he was not suffering a disease of the mind and conceding his guilt is an important factor. This is a true plea bargain.”
McLeod has a history of domestic violence, with one prior conviction for assaulting Murphy and three convictions for assaulting a previous domestic partner over the span of 15 years. That woman, the mother of McLeod’s adult son, expressed relief upon learning Friday that McLeod had entered guilty pleas in the killings.
“He’s been violating and victimizing women and children his entire life,” she said. “I am so relieved that I don’t have to face this monster in court, and neither does my son.”
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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