Lulonda Flett has been sentenced to life in prison in
connection to the torching of a Winnipeg rooming house that killed five people
in July 2011.
The five victims:
Norman Darius Anderson, 22
Maureen Claire Harper, 54
Kenneth Bradley Monkman, 49
Dean James Stranden, 44
Robert Curtis Laforte, 56
Flett was handed five life sentences — one for each case of
manslaughter — but they will be served concurrently and she will be eligible
for parole in five years. Two years were knocked off her eligibility wait for
time already served. Flett pleaded guilty in October 2012 and a sentencing
hearing took place earlier this year. The judge said she considered all of
Flett's cognitive challenges and difficulties in life. However, she also believed
Flett intended to cause harm to two women in the fire, even if she didn't
intend the full catastrophic consequences of her actions.
Flett left the
courtroom in tears.
Evelyn Laforte’s 56-year-old son, Robert, died in the fire.
She said she had mixed emotions about the verdict. “I realize that nothing can
bring my son back,” said Laforte. “So I guess the justice system has done what
they can.” She described Robert as a kind person who never had much in life. She
added she doesn’t think she’ll ever have closure. “Any mother that loses a
child knows the heartache,” said Laforte. Five people died in the blaze on
Austin Street in the city's Point Douglas neighborhood.
There were eight people in the home at the time, including
Flett's sister-in-law, Lynette Harper, who escaped unharmed. The week before
the fire, court records show Flett had been ordered by the courts to stay away
from Harper. Flett had been handed a conditional sentence on assault charges
after pleading guilty to participating with another woman in a 2009 attack on
Harper.
The judge said she accepted Flett was only trying to scare
two women inside, but she said the evidence showed Flett was capable of seeing
the risk she was taking. As a result, the judge said, a life sentence was fair
and just. Fire officials have said the blaze likely started near the front
entrance, possibly on the veranda, blocking an obvious escape route. The front
of the structure was engulfed when firefighters arrived. If Flett does get
parole in five years, she will always be supervised in the community as part of
a life sentence.
Winnipeg woman pleads guilty to 5 fire deaths, Rooming house
set ablaze in Point Douglas area.
***
Other News stories
concerning the incident:
A woman charged with killing five people in a 2011 Winnipeg
rooming house fire has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Lulonda Lynn Flett, 41,
had faced five counts of second-degree murder and three counts of attempted
murder in connection to the blaze in the Point Douglas neighborhood. The plea
is part of a deal with the Crown to avoid a long trial. In addition to five
counts of manslaughter, Flett also pleaded guilty to one count of arson. Court
of Queen's Bench Justice Brenda Keyser asked Flett, who was sniffling a bit
throughout the hearing, if she clearly understood the charges.
"You hesitated a bit. Are you certain this took
place?" Keyser asked Flett in court.
"Yes," Flett answered.
"You appreciate you will go to jail for long period of
time?" the judge asked.
"Yes," Flett said.
"Anything you want to say?" Keyser asked.
"No," Flett replied.
Her lawyer, Darren Sawchuk, said Flett did not intend to
kill anyone.
"I think once the facts are laid out before the court,
when we return [for sentencing], you'll have a better understanding of the lack
of intent in this case and the other circumstances that make manslaughter the
appropriate charge," Sawchuk said outside court. Maximum penalty is life
in prison. Flett faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. A sentencing
hearing is set for March 21, 2013. Sawchuk would not say what sentence he will
seek, nor would he discuss details of what happened until the sentencing
hearing takes place.
The fire at 288 Austin St. broke out in the early morning of
July 16, 2011. There were eight people in the home at the time, including
Flett's sister-in-law, Lynette Harper, who escaped unharmed. The week before
the fire, court records show Flett had been ordered by the courts to stay away
from Harper. Flett had been handed a conditional sentence on assault charges
after pleading guilty to participating with another woman in a 2009 attack on
Harper.
Those who died in the blaze were:
Norman Darius Anderson, 22.
Dean James Stranden, 44.
Kenneth Bradley Monkman, 49.
Maureen Claire Harper, 54.
Robert Curtis Laforte, 56.
Fire officials have said the blaze likely started near the
front entrance, possibly on the veranda, blocking an obvious escape route. The
front of the structure was engulfed when firefighters arrived. Court was told a
Gladue report — a pre-sentence assessment for aboriginal offenders — will be
prepared before the March date. Gladue reports are based on a Supreme Court of
Canada ruling that said judges should take an aboriginal offender's background
into account for sentencing.
'The tragic case:'
Flett is originally from a remote First Nation, Sawchuk
said. "She's from a remote northern community and she doesn't have much of
a history with the courts, so this whole event today is in some ways probably a
relief to her that we're moving the matter forward," he said. "It's a
tragic case. It's a terrible case and my client has accepted responsibility for
the role she played in it."
Lyle Duhaime, who lived in the rooming house before and
after the blaze, said he knew three of the five people who died. "It
always hurts, especially when people aren't ready to die yet," Duhaime
told CBC News. "They're still alive … it wasn't their time, eh? It didn't
happen naturally." Duhaime said if he had been living in the house at the
time of the fire, he likely would have died as well.
Winnipeg rooming house fire claims 5th victim
Accused ordered to stay away from home resident
Cbc.ca
July 18, 2011
A fifth person has died after a rooming house was torched on
the weekend in Winnipeg's Point Douglas neighborhood.
Robert Curtis Laforte, 56, had been in critical condition
since the Saturday blaze at the 2½-storey home at 288 Austin St. N. but
succumbed to his injuries, police said on Monday.
Six adults were taken to hospital in critical condition and four
were pronounced dead soon after.
Lulonda Lynn Flett, 40, now faces five counts of
second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. Flett had been
ordered by the courts to stay away from her sister-in-law, Lynette Harper, who
escaped the fire.
Court records show Flett was handed a conditional sentence
last week on assault charges after pleading guilty to participating with
another woman in a 2009 attack on Harper.
Flett, with no prior criminal record, was to take an anger
management course.
Harper was among eight people in the house at the time of
the fire. She escaped unscathed along with another resident Marie Flett. The
remaining fatalities, all from Winnipeg, are identified as:
Norman Darius Anderson, 22
Maureen Claire Harper, 54
Kenneth Bradley Monkman, 49
Dean James Stranden, 44
One man, Bradley Anderson, remains in hospital. He was
listed in critical condition but has since been upgrade to stable. Fire
officials have said the blaze likely started near the front entrance, possibly
on the veranda, blocking an obvious escape route. The front of the structure
was engulfed when firefighters arrived. Neighbors told CBC News that the
rooming house is often home to people struggling with addictions. Officials
said the house had 13 rooms and that they believed people were also sleeping in
the basement.
***
Lulonda Flett, the
map of human frailties, and where they can lead:
All it took was drunken anger and a match for a
disadvantaged and unsophisticated mother of six to become Manitoba’s most
recent mass killer. To look at Lulonda Flett’s case and how she wound up where
she is today — in jail for killing five people trapped in a rickety rooming
house she torched at 288 Austin St. North in 2011 — is to consider truly human
frailties which plague so many in our society. The word ‘killer’ conjures up
images for me, and many others. Hooded thugs who take lives without a thought.
Remorseless predators so desperate to feel a sense of power and control they’d
commit the ultimate sin to get there. But that’s not Lulonda Lynn Flett, all
things considered. And that’s the queasy irony of it all.
Ironic in that someone who’s as far from the stereotype of
the common killer as she is, in the end, ends up taking more life away in one
go than anyone else in my memory, including: teen gangsters armed with
automatic guns or bona-fide family-loathing psychos. People with histories like
Ms. Flett’s don’t typically wind up in jail for mass slayings, at least not
that I’ve seen. They usually wind up there because they shoplifted diapers,
booze, or to feed a crack habit out of sheer desperation. And it’s this dissonance, to me, that makes
how she killed five people with one senseless act that much more of a mystery
that’s been weighing on my mind for nearly two years now. To her, the reason
why she is where she is simple. But I just don’t think that’s true. Maybe I’m
over-thinking it.
“It was all about the drinking. That’s how I ended up here.”
Lulonda Lynn Flett, to psychologist Dr. Kent Somers, early 2013. Could it be
that simple? Or is it an excuse to try and dodge a potential life sentence in
prison?
Lulonda Flett: The
early years
The second-youngest of six siblings (a seventh died as an
infant), Flett (then Harper) was born at the hospital in Norway House 41 years
ago and soon brought back to her home community of St. Theresa Point. Her
mother’s doctor told her mom to give birth there because there was no
appropriate medical facility in the small STP reserve, one of four which makes
up the overall community of Island Lake. A doctor visits there just once a
month. Currently, of 521 Homes in STP – 463 have no water service and there’s
an 83 per cent food insecurity rate. Food prices are 50 per cent higher than
average retail price — and this is today. Who knows what it was like in 1971.
Mom was a community health worker and dad worked “odd jobs”
to get their large family by.
Her folks drank, struggled with the bottle — excess Flett
would ultimately came to see as “normative” behavior in her later years. Her
parents’ parties often led her older sister to lock the younger kids in a
bedroom when the adults were drinking. They’d watch TV or play music. She says
dad would go on drinking “binges” to Winnipeg, sometimes staying there for
months. Flett’s older sister described violence breaking out after the drinking
parties wound down. This prompted the sister to assume the role of protector to
her siblings. She’d camp out on floor by the bedroom’s barricaded door to
percent people from entering. Sometimes, when her dad was on one of his city
‘trips,’ mom would go off to join him. Flett would be packed up to go stay at
her aunt’s. Sometime before she turned 10, Flett says an older relative began
abusing her. She says she tried to tell her mother about what was happening,
but was accused of “making it up so I wouldn’t have to sleep over there.” She
also says she tried to tell her aunt but, “nobody believed me [so] I just
stopped trying to tell them.”
To this day, Flett remains curiously concerned about hurting
her now 75-year-old mom’s relationship with her alleged abuser. She says he
tried to apologize to her once, but she rebuffed him. “I told him not to talk
to me.” The relative was never charged. Her mom, now 75 and caring for two of
Flett’s children, ultimately quit drinking after Flett’s father got sick with
stomach ulcers and suffered kidney failure.
Phase two: A
portrait of Flett as a young woman
At around 14 or 15 years old, Flett was sent away from STP
to start school in Teulon, at a residential school where nuns ruled the roost.
Her sister — her elder protector — was also there.
Raised in a home where Oji-Cree was the main dialect, Flett
had to adjust her tongue to the English language as the nuns wouldn’t tolerate
a word being uttered in any other language. They “insisted,” she says. Nonetheless,
Flett got good marks and enjoyed school. She “never missed a day,” she says. According
to Dr. Somers, “school represented a refuge from the relative chaos at home,
[and] she agreed.” She also enjoyed playing sports. The sister had a bit of
different view, saying she dropped out at one point but was convinced to
return. She and others, she says, were treated to disparaging comments from
some. “Go back to the bush where you belong,” were among the insults hurled at
them. It was around this time Flett took her first drink. She met a young man
named Brian, and became pregnant. This was 1986-87.
She ventured into Winnipeg and had the baby at Villa Rosa.
Wanting to return to high school, arrangements were made for her to live with a
relative in Brandon to complete Grade 11. It didn’t work out as planned. Flett
says that relative’s drinking problem paved her a road back to St. Theresa. She
still hoped to finish Grade 12, and find a job at the local nursing station.
But it seems the challenges of life as a new mom didn’t allow that to happen as
time wore on. “I had no time for myself — I always had a baby,” Flett says. By
18, she met her husband to be, B., a man with whom she’s had five children. He
was a “nice guy,” Flett says.
But ‘Mr. Nice’ wasn’t to last. “They used to call me raccoon
eyes” By 22, Flett and B. married, and they went to live at his parents’ home
in nearby Garden Hill. “She was an active and supportive parent to her
children,” her sister says. Around this time things started to get ugly for
her. “She reported that her husband insisted that she drink with him, ‘forced’
her to do so,” Dr. Somers writes of his interviews with Flett. B. and she would
drink “super juice” — a noxious homebrew seen by many as a plague in the “dry”
Island Lake community, given the mayhem and sickness it’s spawned there over
the years. B. also insisted Flett smoke weed and later crack cocaine.
They’d smoke up marijuana “almost daily” and come home from
work over lunch to get high, Flett reported. Their marriage and
substance-sharing didn’t appear to make the bond between them stronger.
Instead, she says B. became “very abusive” on a physical, sexual and emotional
level. Flett also says he cheated. He couldn’t keep a job. “According to Ms.
Flett, her husband would lock her in the house, take her shoes and remove the
phone so that she couldn’t contact anyone or ‘run away.’ Ms. Flett related that
her husband often hit her with objects, and also burnt her with a cigarette. “She
commented, ‘they used to call me raccoon eyes’ because of the bruising from the
reported assaults,” Dr. Somers wrote. It didn’t seem to ever get better. In
fact, the abuse escalated into the evil cycle of domestic violence.
“Ms. Flett recounted an incident in which he assaulted her
and then dragged her across a patch of rough ground,” Dr. Somers said. He was
charged and served six months in lockup — and was fully compliant. “[W]hen he
returned to live with Ms. Flett, the violence continued and it was ‘worse.’ It
was a cycle, she kept going back to him, he’d apologize and convince her he’d
never do it again. Berating herself for believing him time and again, she says
her in-laws “told her that the violence was ‘always’ her fault.” Flett’s kids
began begging her to not go back to B. “They said he was going to kill me one
day,” Flett says. She and B. eventually separated. He left for Thompson. She
stayed in STP — for now. Somehow in the midst of all this Flett worked at the
community Northern Store and managed to acquire her certificates in Home Care
support work and First Aid along the way.
But now her drinking, it didn’t stop. It just got worse.
2009-10: a new
beginning?
In 2009, Flett came into a bit of a windfall. It may have
also been her downfall. Having never claimed any federal benefits for the kids,
Flett was handed a $14,000 child-benefits cheese and they moved to Winnipeg. That
year or early the next, Flett started dating C., who was 36 and from her
community. They met while he was on a drinking trip to the city. “For Lulonda,
this was the best relationship she had ever known,” Flett recently told the
writer of a “Gladue” report looking at her aboriginal background and
circumstances. “He never hit me, he never abused me, and he was always there
for me,” Flett said. “The two were inseparable, spending all their time
together,” the report states. For a time — and bolstered by the child-tax money
– Flett returned to STP, paid for her kids’ needs, helping to fix up her mom’s
home. But C. had his own troubles. An alcoholic himself, he’d panhandle or
borrow cash from a relative to get by. Eventually, he started siphoning money
out of Flett and the relationship took a dark turn towards an apparent cliff.
“Lulonda returned to the city to be with C. She paid for his
wants — alcohol and survived on family and friends as she had no real address.
C. was very controlling over money and Lulonda especially as her money dried
up. C. and Lulonda were both now on welfare and were drinking constantly.” It
was reflection upon this phase which caused her to realize the power the booze
had over her life. “It was all about the drinking. That’s how I ended up here,”
Flett told Dr. Somers. Not seeing the
drinking as a problem, Flett never sought treatment. Her kids urged her to take
it easy but “even these pleas” didn’t trigger a desire to seek change, Dr.
Somers reports.
“She reported only that she has “tried to quit,” prompting
hospitalizations for alcohol withdrawal. Flett subsequently relapsed (evidently
quite quickly) to stifle emotional pain and because of her affiliation with
others who were drinking.” She equated the hospitalizations largely as normal,
given her upbringing (see above). It was around here that someone made a call
to Child and Family Services, while Flett was in the throes of a drinking
binge. Flett’s children were taken away. One was already living with an aunt.
Two others went to live with her mom. The others went to dad. Flett “voiced
bitterness toward B., expressing the belief that he had made the call to CFS in
2010 that resulted in the apprehension of her children,” Dr. Somers wrote. “I
kind of don’t trust him,” she said.
The alcohol abuse only escalated after the kids were removed
from her care. “I was lonely and depressed; I was angry at myself … I didn’t
care about myself,” Flett said. She was drinking up to a 26 oz. bottle of
liquor daily up until the day after her arrest. She’d withdraw in hospital, get
a valium prescription to ease the symptoms upon discharge. Resuming her
drinking habit was “virtually immediate.” It’s like she was living in a black
hole: Drinking, blacking out from it, waking up and starting again. “I wish it
was me who died.” “I was so out of it: I just remember drinking with C.”
This: Pretty much the only thing Flett remembers about the
early morning she torched the couch on porch of 288 Austin St. N. An act of
anger which would wreak havoc on the lives of so many.
Just days before, she had been cut loose from the Remand
Centre after being snatched on an old warrant for an assault against a relative
who stayed at the rooming house. Someone she was barred from being around by
virtue of court-orders. “She reported that (C.) had told her they had argued”
on the night in question, but can’t remember what about, Dr. Somers said. “She
recalled attending 288 Austin Street North … but voiced uncertainty as to her actions,
almost 20 months having passed.” Flett was later arrested in a bar and had to
be told about what she did and the “extent of harm done” by the officers who
interviewed her, the psychologist said, adding:
“When asked about
a possible motive for the office, Ms. Flett stated she had been angry at C’s
mother, who apparently resided in the rooming house … Apparently, (C’s) mother
had previously called the police complaining about Ms. Flett’s behavior at the
rooming house.
According to Ms.
Flett, Mr. Harper’s mother has been concerned about the number of people in the
building and the resultant noise. However Ms. Flett was clear she did not
intend significant harm to others nor did she anticipate that deaths would
ensue from her actions. She commented bleakly, ‘I wish it was me who died.’ She expressed a mixture of tearful remorse
for her actions tempered only by a measure of incredulity at the extent of what
had occurred.”
Instead, dead are: Norman Darius Anderson, age 22; Kenneth
Bradley Monkman, age 49; Dean James Stranden, age 44; Maureen Claire Harper,
age 54, and, Robert Curtis Laforte, age 56.
Flett knew one of the men personally, and says she was
related to Maureen Harper. The wreckage of the fire was incredible to behold. I
remember distinctly being there. I will never forget it.
Nearly two years sober, now. Flett today, is a “physically
robust” (Dr. Somers’ words) woman living in the “Delta” wing of the Women’s
Correctional Centre just outside of Winnipeg. It’s special needs wing of the
new prison, a place where she’s been subjected to intimidation by other inmates
who have discovered what she did. Dr. Somers, in his lengthy report on Flett,
makes several findings about her psychological makeup and abilities, ultimately
concluding she’s a “vulnerable individual” who has serious intellectual
deficits and only “modest internal controls” to help herself manage her behavior.
“A significant aspect of these
findings from intellectual testing, although notably limited at present, is
that these data suggest a context for understanding Ms. Flett’s responses to
events in her life. That is, her capacity for learning from prior experiences
is likely to differ from that of others [whose abilities are typical for their
age.]…
“Her responses to
stress or to problems in her personal life are likely to be more limited and
less effective than are those of most others her age. Her actions are most
likely to be directed by immediate considerations [most likely about herself]
rather than anticipation of long-term consequences [those affecting both
herself and others]. Her focus on her own needs and interests over those of
others is not a reflection of callous self-interest, it is an expression of her
limited capacity for anticipating others’ needs or reactions while being [in
comparison] acutely aware of her own hurt, fear and perceived options.“ She
needs help, Somers ultimately finds.
Also, she’s no psychopath. Somers found no “compelling
evidence of psychopathy” in the woman. That is: no display of traits suggesting
exaggerated self-importance, callous lack of empathy for others, multiple and
versatile patterns of offending, nor frank manipulations of others. (Those are
essentially his words). He notes, however, several “historical factors”
associated with Flett’s offending risk. This quasi ‘probability of future harm’
assessment includes the findings:
Unabated substance abuse, with no intervention.
Chronic domestic abuse with physical injuries
Emotional neglect
Sexual abuse which persisted despite having tried to report
it.
Disrupted schooling
No interventions; no treatment for mental health issues in
past.
The Crown wants to send Flett to prison for life for what
she did, for her guilty pleas to five counts of manslaughter.
Her own lawyers want to see her serve time amounting to no
more than 10 years. You can read all about the sentencing process elsewhere.
That’s not the purpose of this (lengthy) post. See, the thing is, after
considering all the factors, I just don’t know what’s appropriate here in terms
of jailhouse punishment. Let’s face it, even if she does get life, she’ll still
be eligible — eligible — for parole after seven years. So really, the Crown’s
bid is one for lifetime supervision. Considering
the horrific double-fatal arson case of Howard Mason, the request may not be
out of line. The request appears to fall a little flat, however, when
considering Flett’s nearly total lack of criminal involvement. Also muddying the mix is her comment to Dr.
Somers about not anticipating deaths would result from her actions. It has me
seriously wondering: Can someone with Flett’s background — with the life she’s
been through and her level of intoxication at the time — actually fire the
synapses which would suggest otherwise? That she actually knew what she was
doing? I’m just not so sure.
Some parting words
of forgiveness:
Marie Anderson, the mother of Norman Anderson, who died in
the horrible blaze, wrote Flett a simply-worded letter. The level of
forgiveness expressed is unusual, and if taken sincerely – inspiring.
“I often think
about you and wonder how you must be feeling. I am writing you this letter to
let you know I am not mad or angry with you and that I love you even though I
never met you. It is really hard for me to think about this
person that I love so much, that was taken away from me suddenly. I pray that
things will go well for you in court and I do not want to lay charges but it’s
not up to me, to make that decision. I want you to know I want to put this
behind me and move on with my life. God bless you and take care”
–Marie Anderson
As always, stay safe !
Bird
***
