REGINA -- The family of Blaine Katz was able to breathe a bit easier on Wednesday after Gerald McDormand was found guilty of manslaughter.
“This has been going on for two and a half years and it’s really hard because we have to keep reliving it over-and-over, so we don’t have time to heal and move on and lay my brother to rest,” said Wendy Whitebear, sister of Katz.
Katz was murdered on Aug. 12, 2017 in an apartment building on Cornwall St. McDormand is the second person to be convicted of manslaughter in his stabbing death.
Since that day, Katz’ family has been finding ways to cope with the loss.
“He was my baby brother, I loved him very much, I wasn’t a fan of his lifestyle, but no matter what he was always Blaine,” Whitebear said. “This is taking a real huge toll on everybody.”
During McDormand’s trial over the last month, the court heard that Steven Paul St. Pierre delivered the fatal blow to Katz. St. Pierre pled guilty to manslaughter earlier this year.
Justice Meghan McCreary found that McDormand organized the assault that led to Katz’ death, saying, “Manslaughter is a crime of consequence. I find that a reasonable person in all the circumstances would have appreciated that bodily harm was the foreseeable consequence of the dangerous act of assault which was undertaken by Mr. St. Pierre.”
“Hopefully he does get the time that he deserves,” Blaine’s brother Michael Ireland said. “You hire someone to do your job because you’re a coward and you can’t do it, hopefully he gets a lot more time than St. Pierre did because in the end, St. Pierre was just a pawn and that’s all he was, he was a toy that Gerald used for his own gratification.”
St. Pierre received a 12-and-a-half year sentence for his role in the killing. McDormand will be back in court for a sentencing hearing on Oct. 10.
