A Flin Flon man has been found guilty of manslaughter after his lawyer argued an attempt to scare off a perceived intruder with a samurai sword turned unintentionally deadly.
Mitchell Whitbread is scheduled for sentencing in March after jurors handed down their verdict in the 2012 homicide of John (Kelli) Eyres.
Whitbread, 27, entered court charged with second-degree murder, which denotes an intent to kill. The judge instructed jurors they could also consider the lesser charge of manslaughter, which denotes no
intent to kill.
After entering deliberation this past Monday afternoon, Nov. 9, jurors in the Court of Queen’s Bench in The Pas emerged the following afternoon with the manslaughter verdict.
Whitbread now faces up to life in prison for the late-night stabbing, which occurred at the multi-unit home at 16 Hill Street on May 12, 2012.
Whitbread’s lawyer, Greg Brodsky, stressed in a post-trial interview that the jury determined Eyres’ death was unintentional and that Whitbread “overreacted to the danger that the intruder was presenting.”
Brodsky said Eyres “seemed to be” intruding into Whitbread’s residence the night of the incident by “trying to shoulder his way into the house, banging on the door and shouldering into the door.”
Whitbread took hold of a “large” collectable samurai sword and went out to confront Eyres “to frighten him with his sword, which would frighten anybody,” Brodsky said.
“That was the overreaction because Eyres lunged at” Whitbread, toppling him over, with the stabbing occurring in the ensuing “tussle,” he said.
“For anyone to think that the fellow [Whitbread] went out with his huge sword and stabbed the fellow in the back would be unfair, because you have to take into account that the jury found that this was an unintentional killing.”
Brodsky said a pathologist found Eyres was intoxicated at the time of the incident, but that Whitbread did not know this.
He said Whitbread has no record and breached no terms while on bail for most of the time since his arrest. This, he said, saw the judge grant Whitbread a $10,000 bail while he awaits sentencing, despite the Crown’s objections.
When asked whether he would appeal the manslaughter verdict, Brodsky declined to answer.
Barring an appeal, Whitbread will return to the Court of Queen’s Bench in The Pas to be sentenced on March 7, 2016. The maximum penalty for manslaughter is life in prison.
Heading into the trial, the RCMP released few details of Eyres’ death other than to say he died from a stabbing and that he and Whitbread were not known to each other.
Brian Wilford, the Crown attorney in the case, declined comment at this time. A Crown spokesperson could not be reached for comment.
