A Manitoba woman who stabbed her six-year-old son in the chest while under the influence of methamphetamine has abandoned a bid to be found not criminally responsible for the shocking July 2023 attack.
The 29-year-old woman, who cannot be named because it would identify her victim, pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated assault.
The woman acknowledged her responsibility for the attack during a mandatory plea inquiry — a series of questions meant to satisfy a judge that an accused person’s pleas are voluntary and informed.
“In your particular case, there was a lot of involvement and discussions in the courts about (not criminally responsible) and we’ve talked a lot about that as you go forward with this sentencing today (and) you are agreeing that you are criminally responsible,” defence lawyer Matt Gould put to the woman.
“Yes,” she said.
“And we’re not talking about going to a hospital, we’re talking about a jail sentence and that you are responsible for (the assault),” Gould said.
“Yes,” the woman repeated.
Details of the attack were laid out in a 16-page agreed statement of facts filed with the court.
The woman’s son and then-two-year-old daughter were briefly seized by Child and Family Services after she failed a drug test in February 2023, but by June all three were living with the woman’s parents at their Boyd Avenue home.
On July 26, the day of the attack, the victim was in the living room with his grandmother when the accused walked in, took the boy by the hand and told him to go to her bedroom.
“Shortly thereafter … (the accused) stabbed (the boy) two times with a knife,” says the agreed statement of facts.
The woman’s mother immediately called 911. While she talked to an operator, the accused cried and screamed as she took the boy to a couch in the living room and held his head on her lap.
Her T-shirt covered in blood, the woman repeatedly screamed: “I killed my son,” as arriving police officers separated her from the boy and administered life-saving first aid.
The woman was largely unresponsive during a subsequent police interview, with her behaviour resulting in her being placed on a suicide watch. She ultimately disclosed she had used methamphetamine a day before the attack and again that day, her first “relapse” in five months.
The boy was admitted to Health Sciences Centre where he received a large blood transfusion and underwent surgery to close two chest wounds, neither of which had punctured any organs.
Had police not responded so quickly, “the victim would likely have died from blood loss,” says the agreed statement of facts.
The boy was released from hospital six days later and has made a full recovery.
The accused, who remains in custody, will be sentenced at a later date following the completion of a Gladue report into her Indigenous background and personal history.
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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