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Closing arguments in trial of man accused of killing missing Manitoba woman

May 7, 2019 | 10:29 AM

WINNIPEG — A Crown prosecutor says a Winnipeg man on trial for killing an Indigenous woman committed a ghastly crime, while the defence says he did not mean to cause her harm.

Brett Overby, who is 32, has admitted to causing the death of 21-year-old Christine Wood, but says he did not intend to kill her.

Overby has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder but his lawyers are asking a jury for a manslaughter verdict, arguing that he reacted after Wood came at him with a knife.

During closing arguments, the Crown says Wood was slaughtered.

Prosecutors pointed to evidence that her throat was cut, she was stabbed multiple times and her blood was all over Overby’s basement.

Wood was reported missing after she travelled to Winnipeg from Oxford House First Nation in northern Manitoba in the summer of 2016.

Her body was found 10 months later in a ditch near a farmer’s field just outside the city.

The Canadian Press