Joy Nancy Moose had left her halfway house, where she’d been on parole for the horrific stabbings of two men in Ontario, just a month before she fatally stabbed a friend in the neck outside his Winnipeg apartment last year.
Provincial court Judge Heather Pullan sentenced the 32-year-old mother of five to 12 years in prison Wednesday, for the manslaughter of Richard Darryl Wheeler, a 65-year-old recent retiree fatally stabbed at 384 Hargrave St. on Jan. 25, 2023.
The judge agreed to a joint sentencing recommendation from Crown prosecutor Katie Dojack and defence lawyer Marc Zurbuchen.
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Richard Wheeler, 65, died after he was found stabbed in his apartment building on Hargrave Street in January, 2023.
Dojack told court Wheeler was extremely drunk when he made an unwanted sexual advance on Moose. She stabbed Wheeler several times after he’d grabbed her breasts.
Moose, who is from Pikangikum First Nation, north of Red Lake, Ont., has a lengthy criminal record for violence committed in Ontario and while she was in jail. Court was told she has substance abuse issues and a problem controlling her anger.
A friend discovered Wheeler bleeding profusely from his neck, and banged on the door of a neighbouring suite so the tenants could call 911. The victim was pronounced dead in hospital.
Wheeler, a grandfather who had three biological children and two stepchildren, had worked as a roofer for decades. His sisters described their loss.
“Our family is devastated by how violently he was taken from us. Our brother was no saint by any means, but who is, really? Richard also suffered from trauma and addiction all his life, but he was still a loving, giving, caring brother who would help his friends even though he had little to give himself,” said April Vivanco in court. “Our question is why?… It’s so senseless.”
Moose told court she has turned back to religion and hopes to stay sober.
In a low voice, at times interrupted by her tears, she apologized to the family.
“I have been thinking about what I did and how it has affected you. I can only imagine how you feel. I am aware that you carry a sorrow in your hearts that will never end,” Moose said. “I regret what I did. I want you to know that you are always in my thoughts.”
Dojack and Zurbuchen had recommended the 12-year sentence following Moose’s guilty pleas to manslaughter as well as charges of assaulting a peace officer and escaping custody in February.
She had originally been charged with second-degree murder.
Wheeler and Moose had met through another resident of the building on Jan. 23 and had been drinking there together, along with others. Wheeler and Moose left the suite to go buy alcohol, but ended up sending another resident off with cash for beer. They stayed in the building.
Two friends of Wheeler’s — homeless women whom he let rest and freshen up in his apartment — didn’t hear the stabbing outside the suite.
Moose left Wheeler in a pool of his blood and tried to get a cab to Polo Park, but the driver refused her offered payment of beer and sexual favours.
She was arrested on the slaying charge as well as for escaping custody Jan. 28 at a Winnipeg hospital where she was being treated for an unrelated matter. She told detectives she didn’t believe that Wheeler was dead.
“When shown (by detectives) an image of Wheeler, who was deceased, she pushed it away and cried,” Dojack said.
In jail, she spat in the face of a corrections officer, constituting assault.
Moose was on parole at the time of Wheeler’s death for the “horrific, violent” aggravated assaults of two men in Dryden in October 2018, Dojack said.
Dojack told court Moose was invited to the men’s home to drink alcohol and mouthwash. She stabbed one man multiple times before he fled. Police found her stabbing the other man 37 times.
Moose was given a five-year federal sentence in 2019 and released to a halfway house on Dec. 15, 2022, but left the house unlawfully days later.
Zurbuchen told court Moose had faced “incomprehensible loss and trauma” and abuse as a child that has played a role in her offending and her substance abuse.
erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca
Erik Pindera
Reporter
Erik Pindera is a reporter for the Free Press, mostly focusing on crime and justice. The born-and-bred Winnipegger attended Red River College Polytechnic, wrote for the community newspaper in Kenora, Ont. and reported on television and radio in Winnipeg before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Erik.
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