Fontaine family begins healing after third man sentenced

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This article was published 17/05/2019 (2005 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A 13-year prison sentence was handed down Friday to the third of three men convicted of killing Jeanenne Fontaine, leaving her family and friends to mark the end of a long court process and preparing to begin their healing journey.

Jason Meilleur, 40, was convicted of manslaughter in the 29-year-old woman’s March 2017 death.

Fontaine was killed after Meilleur went to her Aberdeen Avenue home to collect a methamphetamine drug debt Fontaine’s boyfriend owed to his girlfriend. He arrived with Malcolm Mitchell and Christopher Brass in tow. During what prosecutors argued was a robbery plot, Brass handed Mitchell the gun he used to shoot Fontaine in the head.

Mitchell pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and is serving a life sentence. Brass was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced to 15 years, which he’s serving along with two life sentences for killing two other people in 2017.

As Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Gérald Chartier imposed Meilleur’s sentence Friday, he said he rejected Meilleur’s assertions he was scared of the other two men and he didn’t go to the Aberdeen Avenue home knowing someone would likely get hurt.

“I find that he was deeply involved in this robbery,” Chartier said.

Meilleur was credited for the equivalent of about three years he’s already spent in custody since his arrest May 17, 2017. The Crown argued for a 15-year sentence.

The judge said he took into account “heart-rending” expressions of grief Fontaine’s family and friends presented in court.

“Too often, we forget,” he said, “that while crime impacts everyone, its impact is disproportionate on vulnerable members of the community.”

A cousin of 15-year-old Tina Fontaine, whose body was pulled from the Red River in August 2014, Jeanenne Fontaine was dreaming of a better life before she was killed, court heard.

A handwritten list of her goals was filed in court. Above regaining custody of her three children and getting into a treatment program, Fontaine wrote: “I need to find a new place to call home.”

Travis Bighetty, friend of the Fontaine family and member of the Bear Clan Patrol, was present throughout the court process. Like Tina, Fontaine represented many missing and murdered Indigenous women, he said, and there was a fear her case would be forgotten.

The sentencing Friday showed “their voices are being heard. Their memories are being acknowledged,” he said.

“It impacted the Indigenous population. It impacted a number of families who had never even met Jeanenne, but still had that stigma and still had that fear with them,” Bighetty said.

“Now, the family can focus not on the men who committed the crime. They can focus on their healing.”

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay