A man on trial for murdering five people at a Langside Street crack house was a “patsy” for the real killer — his now dead father, defence lawyers argued Monday.
Jamie Felix was made to believe he was responsible for the killings by his father Randolph “Chummy” Fagnan, a longtime gang member with ties to the crack house, defence lawyer Ted Mariash alleged in a closing argument to jurors.
“I say the evidence conclusively proves that Mr. Felix’s own father, Chummy Fagnan, orchestrated and planned these murders and in so doing set up Mr. Felix to take the fall,” Mariash said.
Jamie Felix, 32.
“Chummy chose Mr. Felix because he was the perfect patsy,” he said. “Everyone fell for Chummy’s spiderweb of illusions he had spun for the Winnipeg Police Service, Manitoba Justice, Mr. Felix’s own mother and Mr. Felix himself.”
Felix, 35, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of second-degree murder in the Nov. 26, 2023, shootings of Crystal Beardy, 34; her sister Stephanie Beardy, 33; Melelek Lesikel, 29; Dylan Lavallee, 41; and Shawn Marko, 56.
Jurors have heard Felix spent several years in the military and struggled with substance abuse since the 2012 killing of his twin brother following a drug deal arranged by his father.
Court heard evidence Felix spent three days at the drug house, smoking crack and drinking, when on the evening of the murders he was joined by his father, his sister Savannah Fagnan and brother Kyle Houle, all of whom were allegedly immersed in the drug trade.
In the days following the shootings, Felix allegedly confessed to his then girlfriend “I killed people.”
The woman, who cannot be identified by name due to a publication ban, testified Felix told her his brother provided him a bulletproof vest in plain view of others at the drug house and gave him a gun.
“Jamie said he felt scared and like he was being used as a weapon because he was the biggest guy there and (because of) his military background,” she said.
Felix said his father took him outside to the back lane where he told Felix to fire the gun, before returning to the drug house, the woman told jurors.
“He said everything was blurring after that,” the woman said. She asked Felix if he was sure he shot somebody.
“He said yes, because he remembered it in bits and pieces,” she said. Felix appeared confused and upset and described the faces of people inside the crack house as “f—-ed up,” the woman said.
Felix told her he put the gun to his head and pulled the trigger, but there were no bullets left. He then ran out of the crack house, eventually making his way to his grandmother’s downtown apartment.
Mariash alleged Chummy had Felix fire the gun outside as a signal to the real killers and that when they returned to the crack house two minutes later, the victims had already been shot.
“(Felix) was led back into (the crack house) by his own father, looked at the bodies and heard (Fagnan say): ‘Jamie what have you done?’” Mariash said.
Mariash speculated the motive for the killings was a robbery. Xena Hall, Fagnan’s then girlfriend, testified she had been at the crack house at the time of the shooting and, at Fagnan’s direction, grabbed a bag of drugs when she fled the drug house with Fagnan and his daughter.
The lawyer alleged Fagnan set up his son to protect Houle and Savannah Fagnan “because they lived the exact same gang lifestyle as dad.”
Mariash accused Hall — who testified she saw Felix open fire on the victims — of being one of two shooters (the other still unidentified) responsible for the killings.
The lawyer argued Hall’s testimony didn’t align with the forensic evidence, which showed four of the five victims were shot in the head at a downward angle, suggesting they were on their knees at the time.
The aggressive cross-examination of Hall resulted in Mariash later apologizing to both the witness and the jury. He urged jurors to not let their feelings about his behaviour cloud their judgment of Felix.
“I’m not here to be liked or loved, I’m here to do a difficult job,” he said. “I know I can be too much for some people. I chose the strategy I used in this case, not (Felix).”
“I know this is a big ask of you — I’m asking you to free a man accused of an atrocity — but the evidence concluded that the real murderers may still be out there,” he said.
Prosecutor Chantal Boutin said the killings were the culmination of a series of conscious choices by Felix, starting with him accepting a gun and bulletproof vest at the crack house.
“Choices that he now wants you to forget he made, choices that he wants you to doubt,” Boutin said.
Boutin said Hall — who testified Fagnan and his daughter beat and threatened her after the shooting — had no reason to lie about what she saw.
“Kyle, Savannah and Jamie are all Chummy’s kids — why pin it on one over another if another is the real shooter?” Boutin said. “And if it were (Chummy) that was the real shooter, why not blame it on him? He’s dead.”
Mary Felix, Felix’s mother, testified she reached out to her son over social media following the killings. In one message alleged to have been sent by Jamie Felix, he told his mother he was “gonna be going out to the fullest… Just have fun till they come to me.”
Boutin said his comments were an acknowledgment of guilt.
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“He knew what he did and he wasn’t going to be free for long because he killed people,” she said.
Mary Felix provided a statement to police days later saying she believed her son was responsible for the shootings.
“You watched her struggle to testify against her son,” Boutin said. “You heard how difficult it was for her to go to police and why she did it. Because she wanted Jamie off the street. She was scared people would get hurt and Jamie would get hurt.”
Jurors are expected to begin deliberations on Thursday.
dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca
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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