Manslaughter conviction in 2017 Lac du Bonnet killing By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CST Monday, Jan. 18, 2021

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This article was published 17/01/2021 (1341 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba man has been found not guilty of second-degree murder, after a judge ruled he was in the grip of drug-induced psychosis when he stabbed 19-year-old Brittany Bung to death in her car more than three years ago.

Jordan Belyk, 23, was instead convicted of the reduced count of manslaughter.

Bung was attacked just minutes after Belyk met her at a Lac du Bonnet gas station and pressed her to give him a ride.

Justice Joan McKelvey said evidence of Belyk’s behaviour both before and after the attack supported medical testimony he was suffering from a “substance-induced psychotic disorder.”

“In this case, and given the evidence that has been documented, I am satisfied that the accused acted without the necessary mens rea for murder,” McKelvey ruled in a written-decision released Friday. “His mind was not functioning in a competent manner.”

Court heard at trial Belyk and Bung were not known to each other before Belyk, wearing no shoes or shirt, walked into the gas station shortly before 6:30 a.m., Oct. 3, 2017.

An employee at the station testified, after a brief exchange, Belyk followed Bung to her car and jumped in the front seat, said: “Let’s get the f— out of here,” and reclined the seat as if hiding as Bung drove away.

Seven minutes later, Bung called 911, telling an operator a man had jumped in her car and started stabbing her.

Bung was able to exit the car, and was found collapsed at the intersection of Provincial Road 502 and Edward Crescent.

She had suffered stab wounds to her throat, cheek and hands. Bung died less than an hour later, en route to hospital in Pinawa.

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An area man testified at trial to seeing Belyk in his backyard minutes after the killing, looking “zombieish,” with eyes “as big as pie plates.” The man said he scared Belyk off, but saw him again minutes later at the crime scene while driving his son to school.

The man later discovered a window smashed on one of his vehicles at home, and found a knife stashed between the driver’s seat and door.

RCMP officers testified they tracked Belyk to Heritage Park and when making contact, “seemed as if he was not there.” Belyk was slow to respond to police instructions and scurried on all fours for 10 feet before stopping and becoming compliant, court was told.

A friend testified Belyk spent the previous night at her house, and she woke up around 4 a.m. to find Belyk in a paranoid, agitated state. Efforts to calm Belyk failed and he fled the house with a knife.

Another friend present at the house that night testified he and Belyk had been awake for days doing drugs, including methamphetamine.

The medical evidence, however was inconclusive. An RCMP toxicologist testified blood sample screen tests found methamphetamine and cocaine in Belyk’s system, but she was unable to confirm the presence of the drugs to the standard required by the police service’s forensic unit.

However, Belyk’s behaviour was consistent with a diagnosis of substance-induced psychotic disorder, testified Dr. Edward Cetaruk, a Colorado doctor called by the defence and qualified by the court as an expert in emergency room medicine and medical technology.

Cetaruk said consumption of methamphetamine, cocaine and other drugs can change a user’s behaviour for long periods of time, with sleep deprivation increasing the risk they will suffer a psychotic episode.

Prosecutors argued there was little or no evidence before the court Belyk had been a longtime user of cocaine or methamphetamine, and pointed to signs he was clear-headed following the killing, including his attempt to hide the knife.

“The circumstances as outlined by the Crown, cannot necessarily be extrapolated to demonstrate that the accused understood what he was doing or possessed the necessary mental capacity to be found guilty of second-degree murder,” McKelvey said.

Belyk will be sentenced later this year, following the completion of court-ordered reports. He remains in custody.

Less than one week before killing Bung, Belyk was spared jail and sentenced to one year probation, after pleading guilty to a drunken assault on a Winnipeg street.

An argument in June 2016 escalated and Belyk hit a man on 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.

Belyk’s lawyer told a judge at the Sept. 26, 2017, hearing Belyk was still dealing with his addiction to alcohol and other substances in the wake of the unsolved killing of his biological mother in 2011.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca

Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter

Someone once said a journalist is just a reporter in a good suit. Dean Pritchard doesn’t own a good suit. But he knows a good lawsuit.

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