It only took about eight seconds for Jamie Felix to end the lives of five people in a Winnipeg rooming house in 2023.
But the devastation that’s unfolded since that shooting has rippled far beyond those fleeting moments, stretching across oceans and generations, leaving parents without their children and children without their parents, court heard during Felix’s sentencing hearing Tuesday.
“One of the hardest things about losing my mother is knowing that the world still goes on without her,” Kathleen Beardy Smith read from a victim impact statement about how her life was upended by the killing of Stephanie Amanda Beardy, 33.
“The sun still rises. People still laugh. Days still pass. And yet, there is someone missing from my world who can never be replaced.”
Beverley Beardy is Stephanie’s mother, and another daughter — 34-year-old Crystal Shannon Beardy — was also killed in the shooting. She said the losses “put a big hole in my heart.”
“They were loved and missed every day by all,” she said, her voice trembling at times. “When I think of my girls, I get a lump in my throat, and my eyes fill up with tears.”
Felix, now 35, was found guilty of second-degree murder by a jury in March in the deaths of the Beardy sisters, Melelek Leseri Lesikel, 29, Dylan Maxwell Lavallee, 41, and Shawn Marko, 56.
Beverley Beardy says losing her daughters, pictured here, ‘put a big hole in my heart.’ (Submitted by victims’ family)
Court heard nearly two dozen victim impact statements from the five victims’ loved ones Tuesday, including from Lesikel’s mother, Therese Nduku, in Kenya. Crown attorney Chantal Boutin read the statement on her behalf.
“It is like part of your own body has been cut out and thrown away, never to be restored again,” the prosecutor read from Nduku’s statement, at one point pausing to collect herself.
A Crown attorney read a statement from Lesikel’s mother, Therese Nduku. (Submitted by Gardina Prince)
“It is a pain nobody can lift from my hurting heart. By that gun’s bullet, I am condemned to live with that pain my whole life.”
Others addressed Felix directly in their statements, including Lavallee’s mother, Kelley Lavallee, who said she couldn’t imagine what drove Felix to shoot and kill five people.
Lavallee’s mother, Kelley Lavallee, says she can’t imagine what drove Felix to kill five people. (Dylan Lavallee/Facebook)
“I don’t know how to feel about you, even after all this time,” her victim impact statement said.
“You took a son from his mother. You took a brother from his sister, an uncle from a niece and nephew, a father from his children…. He was a good guy. He hated the life he was in, but it wasn’t yours to take.”
All five victims were shot in a rooming house court heard described as a “crack shack” on Langside Street, in the city’s West Broadway neighbourhood, on Nov. 26, 2023. Two were pronounced dead at the scene, while two others died shortly after in hospital.
The fifth victim, Marko, survived in hospital for 18 months after the shooting but died last year. He identified a man named Jamie Houle — the same last name as Felix’s brother — as the shooter, court previously heard.
Marko’s sister, Melissa Marko, told court how hard it was for her and their father to watch him suffer for so long. He was put on life support three times before he died.
Shawn Marko, 55, survived in hospital for 18 months after the shooting but died last year. (Submitted by Melissa Marko)
“We felt useless because there was nothing we could do to make him any better,” she read from her victim impact statement. “I don’t think we will ever be the people we were before.”
While second-degree murder carries an automatic life sentence, the period of parole ineligibility can range from 10 to 25 years. Prosecutors are asking Court of King’s Bench Justice Alain Huberdeau to opt for the maximum, citing the gravity of the offences and Felix’s high degree of responsibility.
Boutin said Felix, who is Anishinaabe, grew up around substance abuse and violence, which helped shape his path.
But when all the evidence about his character is considered, “it does not demonstrate a degree of insight, behavioural stability or rehabilitation” sufficient to warrant a shorter parole ineligibility period, she said.
The mass shooting happened at this Langside Street home in November 2023. (Jaison Empson/CBC)
“The court must hold together two realities: the experiences that have shaped who Jamie Felix is as the Indigenous man before you,” Boutin said, “and the enormously violent and intentional acts that Jamie Felix did that snuffed out five lives, destroyed countless others and shook a community to its core.”
Felix wore a grey sweatshirt and pants as he was brought into court Tuesday morning by two sheriffs, who led him into a wooden prisoner’s box, his ankles shackled. He sat quietly throughout Crown sentencing submissions, sometimes crossing his arms as he listened to people speak in the courtroom filled with victims’ loved ones.
Boutin said though there’s a side of Felix his friends and family know as polite and happy-go-lucky, he also has a side capable of committing extreme violence — pointing to the shootings and a list of in-custody incidents he’s been involved in since — that the public needs to be protected from.
She said the jury accepted evidence that despite consuming drugs and alcohol, Felix made a conscious decision to carry a gun into the suite, open fire and run away.
Felix’s sentencing hearing is scheduled to continue Thursday, with arguments from his lawyers.
Crown seeks maximum sentence for man who killed 5 in Winnipeg
