ManitobaA man has been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole, for the murder of a mother of four who was stabbed multiple times in downtown Winnipeg last year.Ryan John Kennedy pleaded guilty to 2nd-degree murder in 2024 death of Briannah ClowesListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesBriannah Clowes, 28, died after she was found unresponsive and badly injured in downtown Winnipeg on Oct. 31, 2024. Ryan John Kennedy was formally sentenced to life in prison for her death on Thursday. (Submitted by Kasandra Flett)A man has been sentenced to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 10 years, in the killing of a Winnipeg mother of four who was stabbed multiple times in a downtown apartment suite last year.Briannah Clowes, 28, was found lying on the floor in blood and glass in a suite in Place Promenade — the building just north of Portage Place mall — on Oct. 31, 2024. “Briannah’s life was taken from her brutally for no good reason,” Crown attorney Carla Dewar told Court of King’s Bench Justice Herbert Rempel at a Thursday sentencing hearing for Ryan John Kennedy, now 33, who pleaded guilty in August to second-degree murder in Clowes’s death.An autopsy found Clowes had 44 sharp-force injuries, including 17 stab wounds and defensive injuries. Rempel accepted a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence in sentencing Kennedy to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 10 years.Second-degree murder comes with an automatic life sentence, with no parole eligibility for 10 to 25 years.Court heard Kennedy and Clowes were friends. Kennedy’s lawyer Mike Cook told the court his client was “highly intoxicated” at the time of the killing and doesn’t have a clear recollection about what happened.But Cook said in court Kennedy remembers an argument with Clowes before he stabbed her.Clowes had been staying at the suite in Place Promenade, where she had been living with another tenant for about a month, when Kennedy showed up on Oct. 31, court heard.Kennedy began smoking crack with the suite’s tenant and showing the man two knives he had.The tenant left to run errands around 1 p.m., leaving Kennedy and Clowes alone together. Not long after, Kennedy armed himself with a knife and stabbed her repeatedly, Dewar said.Kennedy was arrested on Nov. 2, 2024. He provided a statement to police in which he admitted to stabbing Clowes but claimed it was done in self-defence.In pleading guilty to the charge of second-degree murder in August, Kennedy confirmed to a judge he was the person responsible for Clowes’s death and said he was not acting in self-defence when he killed her.ABOUT THE AUTHORSantiago Arias Orozco is a journalist with CBC Manitoba currently based in Winnipeg. He previously worked for CBC Toronto and the Toronto Star. You can reach him at santiago.arias.orozco@cbc.ca.With files from Caitlyn Gowriluk and Josh Crabb
Man who ‘brutally’ stabbed mother of 4 in downtown Winnipeg sentenced to life, no parole for 10 years
