Man admits to role in deadly rooming house fire, asks for forgiveness in guilty plea to 2nd-degree murder

A 36-year-old man told a Winnipeg court he was sorry for his role in a 2016fire that killed two people in a North Point Douglas rooming house ashe entered a guilty plea earlier this week.

Jonathon Graham Barstad, 36, pleaded guilty Monday in Court of Queen's Bench to second-degree murder and arson with disregard for life.

He was arrested in 2017, along with Edward Wade Beardy. On Wednesday night, a jury found Beardy guilty of two counts of manslaughter andarson with disregard for life for his role in the fatal fire.

Barstad's guilty plea could not be reported until the jury delivered its verdict in Beardy's case.

Second-degree murder carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. However, Barstad will be eligible for parole in 15 years.

The fire broke out in the three-storey home on Austin Street North on July 7, 2016. Brenda Campbell, 51, and John McKinnon Bendon, 61, were killed in the blaze.

Barstad and Beardy were arrested almost a year to the date of the fire. Police said Campbell and Bendon were not the intended victims of the fire, which the Crown argued was set as part of a conflict over gang turf.

'A different person' since fire

At Barstad's sentencing following his guilty plea, defence lawyer Wendy Martin White said her client had had a difficult upbringing, marred by trauma and addiction, but had made significant strides since the fire.

His father was intravenous drug userwho died of AIDS when Barstad was 25, Martin White told Justice Candace Grammond.

Barstad himself was also diagnosed with AIDS after also using intravenous drugs, she said.

"He saw some things that someone should never see," she told the court. That included witnessing his father's girlfriend overdose.

Since his arrest, Barstad has been staying at Forward House, a Christian residence for men with addictions, criminal legal issues, or mental health issues.

While there, he has taken counselling, anger management classes, attended Alcoholics Anonymousmeetings regularly and gone to church, Martin White said.

"There's a different person sitting before you today than there was in 2016," she said.

Before he was sentenced, Barstad told the court he was "sorry to everybody I hurt in this situation."

"The family will probably never forgive me. I just want them to know I'm sorry for everything I did."

Fire set over gang turf war, jury told

A fire investigator testified during the trial that the blaze was started in two places using an accelerant.

During closing arguments in the trial for Beardy, Barstad's co-accused, Crown prosecutors told the court that Barstad lit a fire at the front of the buildingas part of a "show of force" for the gang he was part of.

Crown prosecutor Erika Dolcettisaid that Beardy set a fire at the back of the building.

During Beardy's trial, witnesses testified that the house was used for drug trafficking, and that some of the suites were used to stash drugs. Police said thatCampbell and Bendon had no connections with gangs or the drug trade.

The Crown argued that the motive for the fire was a conflict with a local street gang, who were angry someone was selling drugs on their turf.

Evidence was presented during the trial showing Barstad was connected to theManitoba Warriors street gang.

He was seen wearing their paraphernalia and flashing gang signs in Facebook photos, court heard, andwas also spotted at the Sutherland Hotel, which witnesses testified was a known hangout for the Manitoba Warriors at the time of the fire.