Guilty plea in killing spree

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This article was published 02/05/2016 (3062 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Winnipeg man has admitted to randomly killing three vulnerable people who happened to cross his path as part of a misguided sense of retribution.

John Ostamas pleaded guilty Tuesday to three counts of second-degree murder for the April 2015 killing spree that is unlike any in recent Winnipeg history and put the city’s homeless community on edge.

Ostamas, 40, will be sentenced June 27 by Queen’s Bench Justice Vic Toews. He faces an automatic life term, with the only question being parole eligibility. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory 10-year minimum for parole eligibility, but can be raised as high as 25 years. As well, recent legislative changes mean it can now be made consecutive instead of concurrent.

Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky and Crown attorney Sheila Leinburd told court Tuesday they will make a joint recommendation on sentencing but didn’t hint at what it will be.

Ostamas is a transient man who has spent time in several homeless shelters and battled a litany of mental health issues. He told police the killings were “vengeance” for the earlier rape of his pregnant girlfriend, who he claims lost the baby as a result. Ostamas said four men were responsible, and he was planning to track them all down to kill them. He believed his first three victims had all been involved.

“He’s made some statements that are not entirely accurate,” defence lawyer Greg Brodsky said Tuesday. He noted the Crown agreed to drop the original first-degree murder charges laid against Ostamas.

An agreed statement of facts shows police tried to track down this supposed girlfriend of Ostamas but were never able to verify she exists.

“He didn’t seek anyone out for the purpose of vengeance. These were just killings that happened,” said Brodsky. “If he did exact vengeance and went out to find people who did that and killed them as a result, that would be first-degree murder. We’re not pleading to first-degree murder. That’s him puffing himself out.”

Brodsky said the sudden resolution of the case was partially triggered by the fact two of the killings were caught on video surveillance, making it clear his client was responsible. Brodsky said his client also wrote a series of letters and gave detailed confessions to police.

Brodsky said Ostamas also confessed to other homicides for which he hasn’t been charged in what is again believed to be the product of a delusional mind.

Brodsky said he wouldn’t discuss whether his client meets the definition of a serial killer, but admits he doesn’t recall the last time one person in Winnipeg took responsibility for three unrelated homicides.

However, there was no application to have Ostamas declared not criminally responsible by way of mental illness.

Ostamas first struck on April 10, 2015, when he found Myles Monias sleeping in a bus shelter on Main Street near Pioneer Avenue in the early morning hours. He began stomping on the man’s head. Monias was later found unconscious, rushed to hospital and pronounced dead. Ostamas then took all his bloody clothes and threw them off a bridge into the Red River, according to the statement of facts.

On April 24, Ostamas met 48-year-old Stony Bushie in the area of Ellice Avenue and Hargrave Street. Police say he led Bushie to a parkade near Hargrave and Portage Avenue and attacked him. Ostamas repeatedly beat him with a piece of wood, then removed the man’s clothing and tried to bury him under building supplies.

Ostamas discarded both his and the victim’s clothes in the river. He later told police he tried to cut Bushie’s head off but was unsuccessful.

‘He didn’t seek anyone out for the purpose of vengeance. These were just killings that happened’ — defence lawyer Greg Brodsky

The final killing happened that same night, about two hours later. Ostamas met Donald Collins, 65, in the downtown area. Police say the pair went to a lane near Hargrave and Portage, where Collins was attacked and left for dead. Ostamas also stabbed him in the neck with a pen and removed the victim’s clothing, which he also threw out.

Both the Bushie and Collins killings were caught on video surveillance, which is how police were able to quickly identify him as the culprit.

Monias, from Garden Hill First Nation, had been living in Winnipeg and had fallen on hard times not long before the attack. Killed one day before his 37th birthday, he left behind four daughters.

“It’s good to get somebody like that off the street,” said Chief Dino Flett of Garden Hill First Nation. “Every family that goes through something like that needs closure, and this is part of closure.”

A spokeswoman for Collins’ family said they needed time to process the news of the guilty plea.

Ostamas is originally from the Thunder Bay area. He spent time in Winnipeg on and off for the 10 years prior to the killings. He has a record for multiple assaults in the Thunder Bay area dating back to 2002.

www.mikeoncrime.com