A teen who helped lure a Winnipeg man to his death at Assiniboine Park was manipulated to take part in the crime by her “puppeteer” boyfriend, a court was told Tuesday.
The now 18-year-old woman and her 19-year old-male co-accused have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the 2022 killing of Paul Enns.
Prosecutors and defence lawyers are seeking a maximum youth sentence of seven years custody and community supervision for the woman, to be served under an Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision order. Under the program, offenders are provided access to one-on-one counselling, occupational therapy, tutoring and other specialized services at a cost of $100,000 a year.
FACEBOOK Paul Enns was found dead in the backseat of his BMW in a parking lot near Conservatory Drive in Assiniboine Park in 2022.
“She doesn’t want to squander that opportunity,” defence lawyer Mike Cook told Court of King’s Bench Justice Vic Toews at a sentencing hearing Tuesday.
“I think, at the end of the day, she can be a productive member of the community,” Cook said. “She has a lot of potential.”
Enns, 43, was found dead in the backseat of his BMW in a parking lot near Conservatory Drive in Assiniboine Park at 3 a.m. on Feb. 26.
Court previously heard Enns was lured to the location under the pretext of a sexual encounter after the teens contacted him over social media.
According to an agreed statement of facts previously provided to court, a mutual acquaintance of the two killers said the male teen and Enns had a “physically hostile encounter” sometime prior to the fatal attack, while the girl had never met him.
The then-15-year-old female offender exchanged more than 100 text messages with Enns in the hours prior to the attack.
As the then-17-year-old male offender hid nearby outside, the girl joined Enns in his car shortly before midnight and stabbed him three times with a sharpened screwdriver. The male teen then joined the attack, beating Enns with his fists and a baseball bat.
Two hours later, the two teens met with a friend outside a Stonewall service station and “bragged about beating up the deceased,” showing the friend where Enns had scratched them.
A day after the killing, the teens used Enns’s credit card at Polo Park mall to buy popcorn and a pair of runners for the girl. The girl was wearing the runners when police arrested her at her Interlake-area home on March 1, 2022.
“I think, at the end of the day, she can be a productive member of the community. She has a lot of potential.”–Defence lawyer Mike Cook
Police arrested the male teen three days later at a Winnipeg hospital where he was being treated for an unrelated illness.
Prosecutors are asking that the male offender receive an adult sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for at least seven years from the date of his arrest.
Prosecutors were seeking the same sentence for the female offender, but changed their position following the completion of court-ordered reports examining her background and rehabilitative prospects.
Court heard the woman has been sexually exploited by older males and has a history of self-harm and suicide attempts.
According to a pre-sentence report, the woman described the male co-accused — her then-boyfriend — as a manipulator who preyed on her vulnerability as a sex assault victim to convince her to become involved in the attack, claiming Enns was a pedophile.
“It’s clear from the reports that her relationship with (the male accused) was toxic,” Crown attorney Jodi Koffman told Toews. “She uses words like puppeteering and grooming when describing her co-accused.”
To be accepted into the rehabilitative custody and supervision program, an offender must have been convicted of a serious violent offence and suffer from a mental disorder. Court heard the woman has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety, and has symptoms of borderline personality disorder.
Since coming into custody at the Manitoba Youth Centre, the woman has completed numerous rehabilitative programs, participated in counselling, furthered her schooling and taken on a job at the centre’s cafeteria, Koffman said.
“This is as close to first-degree murder as you can get. This is a person who initiated a physical attack … to me that is very disconcerting.”–Justice Vic Toews
“(The rehabilitative program) is vital to (her) success in the community and that in turn will protect the public long term,” Koffman said. “The work and the effort (she) has put in so far, the honesty she has shown the (report) writers … is really unheard of. The fact that she is working (at the youth centre), is honest about all of her struggles and is amenable to treatment and programming, all of that shows that she is invested in this.”
Prosecutors and defence lawyers are recommending the woman serve two years of closed custody, two years of open custody where she would be eligible for temporary releases to the community, and three years of community supervision.
Toews pushed back against the recommendation, initially questioning why an adult sentence, with lifelong monitoring, would not be more appropriate.
The judge pressed Crown and defence lawyers why he should not sentence the woman to four years closed custody, with the option to convert it to open custody if she shows she deserves it.
“This is as close to first-degree murder as you can get,” Toews said. “This is a person who initiated a physical attack … to me that is very disconcerting.
“How do I trust this individual?” he said. “How does the public trust this individual? Anyone with half a brain would say they are willing to co-operate.”
The woman apologized in court to Enns’ family, saying she was “horribly sorry” for what she did.
“I take blame and responsibility for my role in what happened,” she said. “I plan on working very hard to become a better person that my family can be proud of. I have a lot of work to do and I’m ready.”
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS FILES Court previously heard Paul Enns was lured to the location under the pretext of a sexual encounter after the teens contacted him over social media.
Family members provided victim impact statements to court, describing Enns as a talented computer expert who liked to “nerd out” over his love of sports-card collecting, Lego and James Bond.
“There is enough pain to last a lifetime,” his mother, Claudette Enns, wrote.
“This whole experience has been hell on Earth,” she said. “Please lock them up so no one else ever has to experience the trail of pain and tears they have caused.”
The sentencing hearing resumes Wednesday with submissions focused on the male offender.
Dean Pritchard
Courts reporter
Dean Pritchard is courts reporter for the Free Press. He has covered the justice system since 1999, working for the Brandon Sun and Winnipeg Sun before joining the Free Press in 2019. Read more about Dean.
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