Manitoba·NewA man who killed three strangers in Winnipeg’s Point Douglas neighbourhood in 2023, when he was 15 years old, was given an adult sentence of life in prison on Wednesday.Youth sentence not enough for ‘vicious and brutal’ 2023 assaults, judge saysArturo Chang · CBC News · Posted: Oct 29, 2025 4:20 PM EDT | Last Updated: 10 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesWinnipeg police at the scene of an assault on Main Street, between Logan and Higgins avenues, on Aug. 22, 2022. One of two teens who brutally beat three people in separate attacks in Point Douglas has been sentenced to life in prison. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC) WARNING: This story contains graphic details. A man who killed three strangers in Winnipeg’s Point Douglas neighbourhood in 2023, when he was 15 years old, was given an adult sentence of life in prison on Wednesday.Justice Gerald Chartier said during a hearing in Winnipeg a youth sentence would not be sufficient to hold the man accountable for “willful and calculated” assaults he committed when he was 15, and that he should be sentenced as an adult.The man and another then 15-year-old badly beat 36-year-old Danielle Dawn Ballantyne, 51-year-old Troy Baguley and Marvin William Felix — a 54-year-old amputee who was on a wheelchair — in the early hours of Aug. 22, 2022.Ballantyne died that morning, and Felix died in hospital a few days later. Baguley suffered from a traumatic brain injury and died in 2023.All the beatings happened within blocks from each other, in less than an hour. The victims were repeatedly kicked and stomped on during the attacks, court heard.In January, the man pleaded guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the deaths of Ballantyne and Felix, and one count of manslaughter for the death of Baguley.The defence had recommended the maximum youth sentence for second-degree murder, which is seven years — up to four years in custody and three under conditional supervision in the community.Prosecutors recommended an adult sentence, which would mean automatic life sentences on the second-degree murder charges.The man won’t be eligible for parole for seven years, which the Crown had recommended.While an adult sentenced for second-degree murder is ineligible for parole for 10 years, someone who receives an adult sentence for an offence committed when they were 14 or 15 years old is eligible for parole in five to seven years. Beatings ‘vicious and brutal’Before the killings, the teen already had a history of multiple assaults and weapon-related offences. Chartier said he was also involved in more than a dozen incidents while in custody at the Manitoba Youth Centre.The judge said reports found he was at high risk to reoffend.Court previously heard he had been diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder and mild intellectual disability. Chartier said that during a psychiatric assessment, the man said that in the hours before the attacks, he drank vodka and took multiple pills. He said he didn’t know why he attacked his victims.But Chartier said the fact he targeted vulnerable people shows the attacks were not entirely random.The man had cognitive limitations, but the Crown proved he had an “adult-like moral capacity,” the judge said.The attacker would have been able to recognize the serious harm he had caused after the first assault, but “he chose instead to continue further vicious and brutal beatings, which resulted in two further deaths,” said Chartier.ABOUT THE AUTHORArturo Chang is a reporter with CBC Manitoba. Before that, he worked for CBC P.E.I. and BNN Bloomberg. You can reach him at arturo.chang@cbc.ca.
Teen who beat 3 people to death in Point Douglas gets adult sentence of life in prison
