Second-degree murder trial begins

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This article was published 02/02/2021 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A trial has begun for a Winnipeg man arrested in the beating death of his girlfriend’s toddler son.

Allen Beardy, 25, was originally charged with manslaughter in the August 2018 death of 22-month-old Drake Catcheway, but is standing trial for second-degree murder.

Paramedics were called to Beardy’s mother’s Idlewild Bay home shortly before 11 p.m.

Chris McCartney told court he and three other paramedics arrived at the house to find Beardy performing CPR on Drake in the living room, as three or four people sat on a couch watching television.

“It was as if they didn’t even notice what was happening in front of them,” McCartney said. “There was very little emotion, given the situation.”

McCartney said Beardy told him the boy fell and hit his head about an hour earlier, but after crying for a short time resumed playing with no indication he was hurt.

Court heard paramedics were unable to revive the boy. Drake was rushed to Health Sciences Centre’s Children’s Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

In a subsequent police interview, Beardy told investigators Drake had fallen on his head three times that day: once as he and the boy’s mother were packing to leave for his mother’s house, a second time when he fell off a bed, and a third when he was jumping on a couch.

Beardy said he checked on the boy in bed late that evening, and told Drake’s mother he was worried about his condition.

The woman checked on Drake “and started screaming that he wasn’t breathing,” Beardy told police. “His head was all wobbly, like he couldn’t keep it straight.”

Beardy said his sister called 911 and he performed CPR on the boy until paramedics arrived. Beardy told police he and the boy’s mother, April Thompson, had met just six months earlier, but he already considered Drake “as my own.”

“I just can’t believe that he’s gone,” Beardy told investigators. “I was going to sign those papers to become his real dad.”

Police arrested Beardy a month later, saying, at the time, Drake died from blunt force trauma to his upper body.

Thompson is scheduled to testify today.

The trial is set for three weeks. 

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca