Manitoba’s highest court has upheld a second-degree murder conviction for a woman found guilty in the slaying of a Shamattawa man whose remains have never been found.
Marisa Redhead, 32, and co-accused Keith Trout, 45, were convicted of second-degree murder following a jury trial. They were sentenced earlier this year to life in prison with no opportunity for parole for 13 years and 15 years, respectively.
Thirty-eight-year-old Grant Redhead’s battered and bludgeoned body was dumped in Gods River in August 2021 and has never been recovered.
Redhead argued on appeal that a video statement she gave to police provided jurors with insufficient evidence to convict her of the murder, meaning they must have relied on the statement of her co-accused to do so, in violation of the trial judge’s instructions.
Jurors heard evidence at trial that Grant Redhead had been visiting the couple Aug. 19, 2021, at their Shamattawa home. They were sniffing lacquer together when an argument erupted and he was beaten, smothered with a garbage bag for several minutes and bludgeoned with an axe.
Three days later, Grant Redhead’s sister reported him missing. It sparked extensive air and ground searches over the next several weeks. He was never found.
On Oct. 2, 2021, Trout turned himself in to Shamattawa RCMP and confessed to the killing. Marisa Redhead was arrested two days later.
Trout and Marisa Redhead each provided police statements admitting their involvement in the killing, but pointed the finger at the other as the primary attacker.
Marisa Redhead claimed Grant had hugged her, which sent Trout into a jealous rage. Redhead told police that as Trout beat Grant, she blocked the doorway so he couldn’t escape.
Trout, Redhead told police, “blasted the music… so no one would hear (Grant) scream.”
As the attack continued in the bathroom, Grant was “begging for his life,” before Trout bludgeoned his head with an axe, she said.
A plastic garbage bag was placed over Grant’s head before Trout ran the bathtub and put his body under water.
In his own police statement, Trout claimed Marisa and Grant got into a shoving match over a dispute involving Marisa’s sister. Trout said he was grappling with Grant when Marisa grabbed a knife and stabbed Grant two or three times.
The two men continued to fight and fell to the floor, Trout told police, when Marisa grabbed an axe and with a “golf-style swing” hit Grant in the head, knocking him unconscious. Trout said his girlfriend wrapped a shoelace around Grant’s neck and told Trout to hold onto one end while she pulled the other for several minutes.
Trout and Marisa Redhead each told police Grant Redhead’s body was placed in a blue tote bin and taken to the Gods River, where the body was dumped in the water. The tote bin was seized from the couple’s home and found to contain Grant Redhead’s DNA.
Each accused admitted to destroying evidence by cleaning blood at the house and burning the axe and Grant Redhead’s clothing in a bushy area near the airport.
In her police statement, Redhead said she blocked the door so Grant Redhead couldn’t escape and to “protect” Trout.
Trout “wanted him dead,” she told police.
Redhead argued on appeal that when she blocked the door, the attack on Grant was not serious enough for the jury to conclude she had the necessary intent to commit murder.
She argued later comments she made to police indicated the violence Trout inflicted on Grant Redhead didn’t escalate until after the door had been locked.
“The accused’s position in this regard was clearly put to the jury by (defence) counsel in her closing submissions,” Court of Appeal of Manitoba Justice Diana Cameron wrote in a decision released earlier this month.
“In our view, it was open to the jury to rely on the admissions contained in (her police statement) as evidence that the accused aided or abetted the murder of the deceased,” Cameron said. “The subsequent comments were open to interpretation but could also have supported… a finding of guilt.”
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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