A man convicted of the murder of an infant girl in Flin Flon in 2020 will spend at least 13 years in jail for his crime.
Robert Alexander Bear was sentenced in The Pas last month and will spend 13 years in jail for the murder of Chase Pearl McCallum-Fleury before being eligible for parole. Bear was found guilty of second-degree murder last summer in Chase’s death.
The court heard Chase was found in medical distress in August 2020 in a home in Flin Flon. Police were called to the home, but on arrival, officers pronounced her dead.
Following a medical examination of the child’s body, RCMP determined that the injuries sustained by the girl were not accidental and began investigating the death as a homicide.
Bear, originally from Sandy Bay, was arrested at his home in March 2021 on a second-degree murder charge. Bear was, according to court testimony, living with the baby’s mother at the time of her death and was left to babysit Chase.
Following a trial last year, Bear was charged with the crime in July at The Pas Court of King’s Bench. Bear’s trial was originally held in May, but the verdict was not announced until two months later. A pre-sentencing report was ordered by the court last summer looking into Bear’s background and possible Gladue factors.
The Criminal Code of Canada considers second-degree murder to be any murder that does not meet the threshold to be considered first-degree murder - that is, if the murder was intentional but not planned and deliberate and not committed under a long list of conditions, usually involving additional criminal activity.
The offence usually carries the chance of parole after 10 years - Court of King’s Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery raised the minimum time before Bear can apply for parole to 13 years. Bear is also banned from possessing weapons and will not be allowed to contact Chase’s mother while he is in jail. According to reports from CBC Manitoba, Lanchbery described Chase’s death as “a heinous act.”
