A 21-year-old gang member will serve 18 years in prison instead of revealing the identities of two masked killers who shot a man dead in front of him, with his lawyer saying doing so would be “a death sentence.”
Eleven days after Denzel Seth Wood, who was 19 at the time, was released from the Manitoba Youth Centre on community supervision, he invited a pair of men to his sister’s Broadway apartment to rob a guest.
Instead of just leaving with 24-year-old Austin Mark Chief’s gold bracelet and rings, one of the masked men shot at Chief five times as he sat in a recliner inside a suite at 634 Broadway.
One of the bullets ricocheted and struck Chief in the back of the neck and travelled into his heart just before 5 a.m. on June 12, 2022.
Wood and the masked men, who’ve never been identified, escaped out the suite’s back door and down the fire escape.
Wood, now 21, was sentenced to 18 years in prison, less time served, for manslaughter in the Court of King’s Bench on Monday for his role in Chief’s slaying.
“He’s never and will never give up their names,” said Wood’s defence lawyer Mike Cook of the masked men, adding that to do so could be a “death sentence” for his client.
Cook said days after the killing — concerned Wood might talk to the police — the masked men gave him tainted drugs in an attempt to kill him. He ended up recovering in hospital.
Charged with second-degree murder after a Winnipeg Police Service investigation, Wood pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a March plea bargain.
Crown prosecutors Matt Armstrong and Ari Millo as well as defence lawyers Mike Cook and Emilie Cook jointly asked for the “unusually high” manslaughter sentence for King’s Bench Justice Vic Toews to consider. Sentences for manslaughter can range from probation to life in prison.
“He’s the individual who brought the violence to Suite 4 that night,” said Armstrong. “He put multiple peoples’s lives at risk.”
Armstrong added Chief’s death had a “significant” impact on his family.
On June 1, 2022, Wood was released from youth jail in order to serve the community supervision portion of an aggravated assault sentence that was issued the previous April, according to an agreed statement of facts filed in court.
His older sister offered to let him stay at her Broadway apartment, where she lived with her then four-year-old daughter.
On the evening of June 11, Wood’s sister invited an acquaintance over to hang out, after she babysat the acquaintance’s toddler. Chief, a longtime friend of the acquaintance, was invited over after the two kids had been put to bed.
Chief arrived at the apartment shortly after midnight, where he met Wood and the group, including Wood’s grandmother. They hung out listening to music and drinking for several hours.
Wood left the suite at 2:46 a.m. and called the accomplices from the hallway, then left the apartment at 4:21 a.m. to meet them on the University of Winnipeg campus.
Video surveillance captured the trio meeting up and walking back to 634 Broadway, where Wood led the men up the fire escape to his sister’s unlocked back door at 4:46 a.m.
The trio barged into the living room and one of the masked men brandished a loaded 9mm semi-automatic pistol, demanding to know whether Chief was a gang member. He denied any gang affiliation, but the men demanded his jewelry.
Wood’s sister asked if she could leave the room to be with her child, where she remained as the men ordered Chief to get up and leave with them. After he refused, the gunman fired the shots, killing Chief.
The trio fled out the back door into the night, their journey partially captured on video, as Wood’s sister, her grandmother and daughter raced to a neighbour’s to call 911. The acquaintance left with her child before first responders arrived.
Police arrived at 5:07 a.m. and found Chief not breathing. He was declared dead at Health Sciences Centre at 5:48 a.m.
In Facebook messages to his sister later that day, Wood initially denied being involved, but later admitted that the killing — which hadn’t been planned — occurred because Chief “had beef with one of his bros” the agreed statement of facts said.
Wood was arrested on June 20 for breaching his youth sentence, before he was charged with the murder on Aug. 2.
Cook said his client, born in Winnipeg to parents from St. Theresa Point First Nation, faced abuse and abandonment and was apprehended by child welfare at a young age. He was diagnosed with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder at age 16, after leaving school following Grade 8.
Wood intends to finish Grade 12 and get certified as a barber, his lawyer said. He has no plans to leave his street gang.
Toews accepted the joint sentencing recommendation, but said if he had decided on the evidence at trial, he would have given Wood life behind bars.
“I understand that Mr. Wood has had a very difficult situation, but at the same time, there is no excuse, no justification, there is no basis on which to condone or accept what he did on that night,” said Toews.
Toews said if Wood continues to associate with a gang, he will end up back in court again after his prison sentence ends.
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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