Women with ‘dreadful’ pasts spared from long sentences for 2023 slaying
- Scott Newman
- Sep 11
- 1 min read
Two intellectually vulnerable women, who were arrested for the alcohol-fuelled beating death of a 33-year-old Winnipeg man, have been spared lengthy prison sentences after a judge ruled a shorter term in a provincial jail would allow them to stay connected to needed supports.
Cherilyn Ashley Dumas, 22, and Calianna Grace Keeper, 21, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the November 2023 killing of Derek Karl Stevenson. Court of King’s Bench Justice Chris Martin sentenced them to 54 months in custody and 48 months of custody, respectively.
Prosecutors had sought a nine-year prison sentence for Dumas and a seven-year sentence for Keeper.
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Dumas and Keeper have been failed by a system that doomed them to lives of neglect, poverty and abuse, defence lawyers told court at a sentencing hearing last month.
Keeper has an IQ below 50, has fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and spent her childhood in foster care and group homes, where her frequent violent outbursts made her a challenge to manage, her lawyer Scott Newman told court.
Keeper — who was released from custody on charges of mischief and uttering threats just three days before Stevenson was killed — is unable to live independently and should live in a supervised group home, Newman said.
“We as a society have repeatedly failed to meet her needs,” he said. “She never ever should have been out on her own on the offence date… This is not a case where at 21 years of age the only way to protect the community is to warehouse her.”
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