Twenty years for torture, slaying of Bolivian immigrant

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This article was published 07/07/2022 (805 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A second man who pleaded guilty to torturing and killing a Bolivian man, who had moved to Canada to seek a better life, has been sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 20 years.

Jonathan Bradley Narvey, 27, admitted in March to the slaying of Gerhard Reimer-Wiebe at a home on Alfred Avenue in June 2020.

The 27-year-old victim had been staying there after falling back into alcohol and drug use. His wife and two children were living in Steinbach, where the couple had moved to from their native Bolivia in 2015.

The victim was tortured for three days and killed. His body was taken to Portage la Prairie, where it was burned and buried on the edge of a field.

Crown attorney Mike Desautels and defence lawyer Evan Roitenberg jointly recommended Narvey serve 20 years for second-degree murder before being eligible for parole. The minimum is 10 years. Justice Vic Toews accepted the recommendation.

Narvey showed little visible emotion throughout the sentencing hearing Friday as the Crown read the facts of the case, detailing the severity of the victim’s injuries, and the impact of his death on his widow.

He spoke softly as he addressed the court.

“I’m sorry for the way things went… I wish I could go back and change it, but I can’t. I’ll do what I have to do to get better… I’m sorry to his wife and his kids who don’t have a dad anymore because of me,” he said.

Four people were charged in relation to Reimer-Wiebe’s killing.

On June 29, Kyle Evan Sinkovits, 31, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 20 years after pleading guilty to second-degree murder.

Bobbi-Lynn Hall, 28, pleaded guilty to accessory to murder after the fact and was sentenced to four years in prison.

Chelsea O’Hanley, 26, stood trial in May on charges of first-degree murder, indignity to human remains, and accessory to murder after the fact. The judge has not yet delivered a verdict.

Following his submissions Friday, Desautels said: “A number of kids are going to lose their parents in this, and that’s the absolute tragedy of this entire sentencing.”

He was referring to the victim’s children, as well as the child of Narvey and O’Hanley.

All four accused were living or staying at an Alfred Avenue home in mid-June 2020, when Hall told Sinkovits (her boyfriend) and Narvey (a close friend) she had awakened in bed with Reimer-Wiebe and believed he had sexually assaulted her.

Hall’s allegation was never substantiated by evidence at trial.

The victim was subjected to three days of torture before being killed.

Roitenberg said the home was a “drug-fuelled setting,” specifically methamphetamine.

“Tragedy is everywhere in this case,” Desautels said. “All of it stems from not even the actual sexual assault of Ms. Hall… it was the chance that she might have been sexually assaulted that Mr. Sinkovits and Mr. Narvey went absolutely bananas… The level of depravity… can’t be overstated.”

He said the level of violence committed speaks to Narvey’s “anger and hate.”

“Can someone like that be rehabilitated is really a genuine question. I ask, as a human being… a person who can do those kinds of things over that kind of time period to a victim. It’s scary is what it is,” Desautels said.

Roitenberg noted the use of hard drugs is a key component of the tragic violence.

“My friend characterizes the lack of control as rage and anger, and he may very well be right, it’s certainly part of it. But what’s missing in this (is) the lack of control. (The) real sadness that I see in this case, across the board, is the evils of hard drugs in our society,” he told court.

“It speaks to a much greater social ill that’s upon us.”

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @erik_pindera