Accused Lac du Bonnet killer got probation last week after apologizing for vicious 2016 assault

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This article was published 04/10/2017 (2542 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The slaying of a 19-year-old woman in Lac du Bonnet happened less than a week after her accused killer was spared jail time for a previous violent outburst.

Jordan Belyk, 20, received a suspended sentence and one year of probation Sept. 26, after he pleaded guilty to a drunken assault last summer on a Transcona-area street.

An argument in June 2016 escalated and Belyk smashed a car window and hit a man in the head with a 26-ounce liquor bottle, leaving him with a gash that needed eight stitches to close. The fight started after Belyk got involved in an argument between his then-girlfriend and her ex-boyfriend.

Six days after he apologized in front of provincial court Judge Kelly Moar, Belyk was charged with manslaughter in the death of Brittany Bung. Although RCMP would not release the name of the victim, Bung was identified in court documents. She was pronounced dead in hospital Oct. 3 after being found with life-threatening injuries near a car stopped along Provincial Road 502. People who live near the scene previously told the Free Press she was stabbed in the neck.

Belyk was charged with manslaughter the next day.

Bung wasn’t involved in Belyk’s June 2016 assault. His defence lawyer, Crystal Antila, told Moar that Belyk was still dealing with his addiction to alcohol and other substance abuse in the wake of the unsolved homicide of his biological mother in 2011.

“He’s continuing to deal with his addictions,” Antila said at the Sept. 26 hearing.

Belyk had taken a leave from his job as a seasonal labourer for the City of Winnipeg to try to get help for his substance abuse.

A suspended sentence allows an offender to avoid jail as long as they follow the terms of their probation and don’t run afoul of the law.

Because he was on a suspended sentence and probation at the time of his arrest for manslaughter, Belyk’s suspended sentence could convert to jail time. He remains in custody.