Slaying 19-year-old ‘caring soul’ during drug binge worth 11 years, judge rules By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, May. 11, 2021

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This article was published 10/05/2021 (1279 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Jordan Belyk may have been in the grip of a drug-induced psychosis when he stabbed 19-year-old stranger Brittany Bung to death, but he knew full well his drug binge could have tragic consequences, a judge said Tuesday before sentencing him to 11 years in prison.

“There is no question this offence was shocking in its violence,” said Queen’s Bench Justice Joan McKelvey. “A significant sentence is appropriate in order to have denunciatory and deterrent effects on those who voluntarily intoxicate themselves with mind-altering drugs.

“Mr. Belyk was aware of the effect such drugs had on his life and indeed recognizes that he may continue to struggle with substance abuse once he returns to the community,” McKelvey said.

McKelvey credited Belyk for time served since the Oct. 3, 2017 killing, reducing his remaining sentence to just under six years.

Belyk, 24, stood trial for second-degree murder, but McKelvey convicted him of the reduced charge of manslaughter, ruling he did not have the state of mind to form the intent to kill.

Bung was attacked just minutes after Belyk, who was wearing no shirt or shoes, crossed paths with her at a Lac du Bonnet gas station around 6:30 a.m.

At trial, an employee of the station testified 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.

“Without question, what transpired with respect to Ms. Bung was horrific, brutal, unprovoked and senseless,” McKelvey said. “No one could listen to her 911 call and not be impacted by the last moments of this young women’s life.”

Bung suffered 14 stab wounds to her face, neck and chest, and 25 defensive wounds to her hands. She died less than an hour later, en route to the hospital in Pinawa.

Belyk, who had no ties to Lac du Bonnet, had been on a drug binge and hadn’t slept for days at the time of the killing.

An RCMP toxicologist told court that 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 physician called by the defence, and qualified by the court, as an expert in emergency room medicine and medical technology.

Consumption of meth, 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, Cetaruk said.

The defence argued Belyk’s substance abuse problems could be traced to the 2011 killing of his biological mother, who was an addict herself.

Just one week before Bung’s death, Belyk was spared further custody and sentenced to one-year probation after pleading guilty to a drunken assault on a Winnipeg street.

Belyk resumed using drugs immediately upon his release.

McKelvey said Belyk appears genuinely remorseful and committed to addressing his addictions.

Bung’s killing demands a stiff prison sentence, but for Belyk “rehabilitation will serve as the greater protector for society,” McKelvey said.

“Hopefully, that will be achieved, and I believe it can,” she said.

At a sentencing hearing last month, Bung’s family and friends provided 17 victim-impact statements, describing the hole her death has left in their lives.

“We are still in shock she is gone… She deserved to live a full life,” said Leann Bung, describing her daughter as a “kind, compassionate and caring soul” who hoped to enrol in culinary school.

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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