Brandon Harder
Regina Leader-Post
Fall’s first breath was followed closely by a 32-year-old mother’s last on Okanese First Nation in September 2024.
Police announced the father of her children was responsible for what a judge would later call a crime of “senseless violence, domination and cruelty.”
But when the shock of her death was still fresh, having only limited information from police, Amanda Keewatin’s grieving family was left with many questions.
Not yet knowing the extent of what happened to their “Mandy,” the family was met with yet another question.
What clothes would she be buried in?
Tasked with preparing her body for the funeral, Amanda’s sister and cousin saw for the first time the brutality she’d endured at the hands of James Stonechild.
Trauma flowed from the deceased to the living as they saw the wounds to their loved one’s face and upper body. They viewed the wounds on her arms and hands, imagining how she must’ve tried to protect herself.
They had to choose the burial clothing accordingly.
With a knife that should’ve been used to prepare meals for their family, the man who’d been with Amanda on and off for around six years inflicted these wounds. They would later be described in court using the sterile terms of a forensic pathologist that spoke only of injuries to the woman, including her heart, not the loss of love contained therein.
Stonechild gets life in prison
Amanda’s loss was illustrated by those who felt it most acutely, through victim impact statements read into the record at Regina’s Court of King’s Bench on Wednesday. Those statements were heard before Stonechild was given a mandatory life sentence for the second-degree murder to which he pleaded guilty.
Accepting a joint submission from both Crown and defence, Justice Catherine Dawson imposed a 10-year period of parole ineligibility.
“There are cases that call for grave punishment for grave crimes in order to reflect society’s revulsion, and this clearly, Mr. Stonechild, is one of those cases,” Dawson told him before passing sentence.
The circumstances, she said, offered “no real answer to the question of why.”
According to agreed facts, at 4:38 a.m. on Sept. 24, 2024, police were dispatched to Stonechild’s home. He was the one who called, reporting with urgency that Amanda was badly hurt. When an officer arrived, Stonechild told him “she’s gone” and held out his hands to be cuffed, saying he guessed he would need to be taken in for murder.
He also asked the officer to not let the young children, who were in the home, see their mother. She was found on her side next to a bed. The large kitchen knife was on a nearby dresser.
One of the children was awake when police arrived and later told an interviewing officer “daddy hurt mommy.” It would not be the last time the child would speak words to that effect, according to the family.
Amanda’s sister, Jessica Taylor, is haunted by the words of the child, which now reflect greater understanding.
“Daddy killed mommy. These are not words any child should know,” she told court, her voice steady but her hands shaking at times.
She’s had to explain to her own children what murder means because they’ve heard about it from their cousin.
“Imagine explaining murder while your kids are playing Barbies.”
‘Really sorry for your loss’
Stonechild himself sat dry-eyed for many of the impact statements. But it was at a later mention of his children that he began to weep.
Given the chance to speak, the 40-year-old man rose and turned to Amanda’s family members, who are from Peepeekisis Cree Nation.
“I’m really sorry for your loss,” he said, noting regret.
“I was struggling mentally, and I was suicidal at the time.”
Life’s circumstances had put him at an “all-time low” and he’d experienced voices in his head for a long time, Stonechild said. His lawyer told court he struggled with drinking.
While in custody, he became properly medicated and studied the bible, he said. Had he sought help sooner, the incident would not have happened, Stonechild asserted.
“Like a miracle, my mind became free from my burdens.”
Stonechild wasn’t there when they lowered Amanda’s casket into the ground, so he didn’t hear her grandmother cry out in pain. But he heard about it Wednesday.
He heard about a light still left on each night by her grandmother in the vain hope that she’d come home.
He heard about guilt over not being able to save her from him.
He heard about lost friendship, lost future, and guilt over not reconnecting with her before it was too late.
He heard about depression and nightmares. They’re vivid.
He heard about medication that’s consumed now, and the food that isn’t.
‘I’m at your mercy’
When the family went through earlier grief over another loss, Amanda took a hand in hers. She offered a hug.
Stonechild heard about how the family is now trying to pay that forward to her children. His children.
“My kids are yours now, and I’m at your mercy,” he said.
Stonechild heard much about the children, whose identities are protected by a publication ban.
He heard about therapy — drawings that display the effects of his actions.
He heard about expression — random people have been told “what happened to mom.”
He heard about a light the children still leave on at night, not out of hope but fear.
“I think the most tragic part of this is they are going to live the rest of their lives without their mother,” Amanda’s own mother, Earlene Keewatin, told court. “They have trauma and have to learn about death when they deserve to be kids.”
There are two beds in their room.
They sleep together in one.
