Teen accused in park slaying had ‘instruction book on murder’: Crown By: Dean Pritchard Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Tuesday, Mar. 15, 2022

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A teen male arrested in the slaying of a 43-year-old Winnipeg man kept a manual on how to commit murder hidden in his bedroom, a court has heard.

Several disturbing allegations were disclosed at a bail hearing Monday for a female co-accused.

Paul Enns was found beaten to death in the back seat of his BMW in a parking lot in Assiniboine Park, around 3 a.m., Feb. 26. Winnipeg police arrested a 15-year-old Stonewall girl March 1, and a 17-year-old male from Warren three days later.

Both teens have been charged with second-degree murder and robbery with a weapon.

Prosecutors told court Monday they will be seeking an order the girl be sentenced as an adult, if convicted. The charges have not been proven in court, and she is presumed innocent.

On Tuesday, a judge denied the girl’s application for release, saying her continued detention was necessary to maintain public confidence in the justice system.

“The vicious and brutal beating she allegedly participated in is not in any way behaviour one would normally expect from a high school student,” said provincial court Judge Lindy Choy. “I can only conclude she is inherently violent or at high risk of being susceptible to negative influences.”

The teens had a “deliberate plan” to lure Enns to the isolated parking lot with the intention of robbing him, Crown attorney John Ham told Choy on Monday.

“This murder was not sudden, it was not heat of the moment, it was not quick, it was not painless,” Ham said. “This attack was vicious, prolonged and brutal.”

Ham alleged the female accused created a social media account and “presented herself to be a 15-year-old female” and arranged to meet Enns for sex in exchange for money, drugs and jewelry.

“Once (Enns) arrived at the parking lot, he was initially attacked by (the female accused), with the (male co-accused) joining in the attack with a baseball bat,” Ham said.

Enns was stabbed in the torso and leg and suffered blunt-force injuries from his head to his toes, Ham told court. Blood spatter suggests Enns was attacked in the front seat of his car, in the back seat, and outside in the parking lot.

Cellphone records show the female teen and Enns exchanged 106 text messages and calls in the two hours prior to the killing.

The teens stole Enns’ cellphone, wallet and car key before fleeing the murder scene in the male teen’s car, Ham told court.

The next day, the two accused allegedly used Enns’ credit card to buy a pair of boots, popcorn and a jacket at Polo Park shopping centre. Ham said the girl was wearing the new boots when she was arrested.

“He asked me if I was interested in a job. He said his girlfriend… was the one setting it up, she was texting (the victim) to meet up, to bring money and jewelry.”
– Teen witness

A teen witness provided a statement to police, alleging the male accused tried to recruit him as an accomplice a day before the killing.

“He asked me if I was interested in a job,” the witness told police in a sworn statement. “He said his girlfriend… was the one setting it up, she was texting (the victim) to meet up, to bring money and jewelry.

“She was going to stab him and he was going to beat up the guy and they were going to take his stuff.”

The witness said he told the male accused he couldn’t join him; in a video call the next day, he asked “how it went.”

“He was explaining how gruesome it went,” the witness told police. “He seemed very proud of it… He was laughing a lot, saying there was no way he was going to get caught because he was smart about it.”

“He was explaining how gruesome it went. He seemed very proud of it… He was laughing a lot, saying there was no way he was going to get caught because he was smart about it.”
– Teen witness

When the teen witness spoke to the female accused a couple of days later, she laughed and confirmed what the male accused had told him, he told police.

Ham rejected a claim the female accused’s lawyer, David Walker, made to the Free Press, alleging his client was a secondary player in the killing.

“She was proud of what she did” and told a friend she wouldn’t get caught “because they did it smart,” Ham said. “She is not some weak girl who had no choice but to follow her violent boyfriend.”

Police executed a search warrant at the male accused’s home March 1. What appeared to be blood was found in his car and a baseball bat believed to be the murder weapon was in the front-door hallway closet, the Crown said.

In the teen’s bedroom, police searched above the ceiling panels of his closet and found “what appears to be an instruction book on murder,” Ham said.

The Crown lawyer read a passage from the book that touted the alleged value of “assassins.”

Journals seized from the teen’s room included drawings of homemade weapons and notes about making bombs, court heard.

Choy said a proposed bail plan that would confine the female accused to her home provided no real assurance she would stay there.

“The nature of the assault and its ferocity is one that the public would find is so shocking as to demand her continued detention,” the judge said.

Choy “completely and entirely” rejected Walker’s argument Enns had “no good reason” to be in the park at the time he was killed.

“We can only speculate what lured the victim to that location,” Choy said.

“We also do not live in a society that condones vigilantism or allows two teenagers to assess the moral compass of its citizens and decide whether they should suffer a violent and painful death.”

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca