An accused mass killer was either driven by drug- and alcohol-induced paranoia or was a pawn in a frame-up when he fatally shot five people in a Winnipeg rooming house, a jury heard Monday.

Crown prosecutor Chantal Boutin told court in closing arguments that after days spent at the home smoking crack and drinking alcohol, Jamie Felix did not feel like he could trust others who were in the suite, so he executed four of them and shot a fifth person who died more than a year later.

“Ultimately, there’s no good reason why five people who were so deeply loved lost their lives,” she said.  “Jamie was scared. He did not know who to trust, so he killed them.”

Felix, 35, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder in the 2023 killings in the West Broadway neighbourhood building.

The victims were identified as Crystal Beardy, 34; her sister Stephanie Beardy, 33; Melelek Lesikel, 29; Dylan Lavallee, 41; and Shawn Marko, 56.

The trial has heard that Felix struggled with substance use following the death of his twin brother, which led him to take refuge for days at a suite in the rooming house known for being a “crack shack.”

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The two-week trial heard testimony from witnesses, including Felix’s mother, his former partner and his father’s ex-girlfriend.

Accounts from those closest to Felix detailed a loving person who took pride in his military training and was in college to further his education. When Felix’s twin brother Johnathen died in a drug deal gone wrong, he turned to drugs and alcohol to numb the pain, Mary Felix said about her son.

Court heard Felix relapsed more than a week before the shootings. Boutin said it was those relapses that would lead Felix to connect with his father and another brother, who were associated with a gang that operated the drug den in the rooming house.

Prosecutors say that Felix’s father, Randolph (Chummy) Fagnan, and his brother had been in the suite with Felix the day of the shootings, and the brother gave Felix a bulletproof vest and a handgun.

This led Felix to believe that he was being used for his military experience and his size to intimidate others, said Boutin. “It’s their actions and their criminal activities that would give rise to Jamie’s fear and discomfort.”

Court heard from Felix’s former girlfriend of three years. The woman testified that Felix had confessed to the killings and admitted that he attempted to shoot himself with the same gun afterward, but there weren’t any bullets left.

Felix’s lawyer offered a different theory on what occurred that day.

“(Fagnan) … used Mr. Felix, not as the fortuitous gunman who just happened to snap and murder everyone, but as his malleable and vulnerable patsy,” argued Theodore Mariash.
He told the jury that Fagnan was intent on robbing the suite and planned to set up his son to take the fall.

Mariash suggested that Fagnan had already shot the victims when he went for a walk with Felix, and that when the two returned to the home to find the bodies, Fagnan insinuated that Felix was the shooter by saying “Jamie, what have you done?”

The trial heard that Fagnan died in January.

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