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The man charged with murder in the stabbing death of 42-year-old Trevor Needham in east Ottawa last spring has pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.
Emergency responders were called to Provender Avenue just before 6 a.m. on April 4, 2025, where they found Needham with stab wounds in his neck and chest. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
On Wednesday, Jeremy Young appeared before Justice Anne London-Weinstein to enter his plea.
The 40-year-old was initially charged with second-degree murder, as well as the attempted murder of another person. Instead, he pleaded guilty manslaughter and assault by choking.
Needham’s family attended Wednesday’s proceeding, as did the surviving victim, Nicole Enright. Some of those in attendance stepped out of the courtroom as an agreed statement of facts was read aloud.
According to the agreed facts, Young and Enright met at a bar on April 3, 2025, where Young consumed alcohol and cocaine. They ended up back at Enright’s place and continued drinking there.
At some point after 5 a.m., Young became enraged and claimed his bag of acetylmorphine had gone missing.
Young grabbed Enright by the neck, choking her as he pushed her onto a bed. She broke free and knocked on the door of her roommate, Needham, seeking help.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Young stabbed Trevor Needham several times with a kitchen knife during an altercation inside the home on Provender Avenue. Needham was pronounced dead at the scene. (Submitted by Shelly Eastman)
Needham asked Young to leave, but Young demanded his drugs and threatened to kill both roommates.
A fight broke out and Young used brass knuckles to assault Needham before stabbing him several times in the chest and neck with a kitchen knife.
Fleeing a second-floor bathroom, Enright saw that Needham had collapsed at the bottom of the stairs and was surrounded by blood. She ran naked from the house, screaming for neighbours to help.
Young left soon after, but left behind personal belongings including a jacket, a ball cap and a bag of hydromorphone. The knife was left in the living room.
Neighbour called 911
The court heard that a doorbell camera captured Enright frantically knocking on a nearby door and crying for help. Young is seen walking calmly by and calling out, “Where’s my large pack?”
Enright eventually returned to the house to cover herself, where she saw Needham still breathing but bleeding profusely. She fled the house again and found a neighbour to call 911.
Needham was pronounced dead at the scene on Provender Avenue. (Claudine Richard/Radio-Canada)
Emergency crews found Needham near the entrance of the home with no pulse, his carotid artery severed. Young surrendered himself to Ottawa police later that day.
In a joint submission, the Crown and defence are seeking a sentence of 14 years including 13 for manslaughter and one more for choking, to be served consecutively.
The matter has been adjourned until Sept. 3 while the defence seeks an updated Gladue report, a document used to help inform sentencing for Indigenous offenders.