Accused pleads guilty to role in Neepawa man’s death

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This article was published 23/02/2021 (2030 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man involved in a 2017 break-in that left a Neepawa man dead pleaded guilty to his role in the incident, telling the court his life was consumed by an addiction to meth at the time.

Denver Henderson, 36, pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Monday morning in the 2017 shooting death of 62-year-old Leonard Maksymic.

Henderson is the third person to plead guilty in connection with the incident.

According to an agreed statement of facts read by Crown attorney Michael Himmelman, at approximately 3 a.m. on Nov. 25, 2017, Neepawa RCMP received a call from Maksymic’s neighbour, who told police her boyfriend had just found Maksymic dead in his house after going over to check on him.

“Sometime after midnight on Nov. 25, 2017, he noticed Mr. Maksymic’s dog running around outside. As he was taking the dog inside, he noticed the door appeared to have been kicked in. He went in and saw the deceased lying on the floor, surrounded by blood,” Himmelman told the court.

When police arrived, they found the two doors into the house had been kicked in. Maksymic was lying in a pool of blood at the door to his bedroom, the Crown said, and there was a large circular wound in his chest.

A duvet was lying at his feet and it looked like it fell off the bed as he was getting up. Maksymic had mobility issues and used a walker to get around. It was next to his body when he was found.

Police found a broken piece of a firearm stock next to his body and another broken piece outside, near some railway tracks. Himmelman said there were droplets of Maksymic’s blood nearby.

An autopsy found the cause of death was due to the shotgun wound to Maksymic’s chest. Pellets and wadding were found in his body.

During the investigation, Himmelman said police learned Maksymic was a morphine dealer and had received a package containing capsules a few days before his death.

A witness who testified at the preliminary inquiry told police Henderson called him that night and told him he was hanging out with two women. Henderson said he was on his way to visit a morphine dealer named Leonard to “get his fix,” said Himmelman.

“It didn’t sound like there was any way of paying for it, but the accused was going to get what he needed. The accused said he was going to ‘mess Leonard up,’” Himmelman read from the agreed statement of facts.

The man testified Henderson sent him a number of messages and called him the next morning, asking him to clear his messages and phone records.

On the night of the killing, Kelsie LeSergent, Molly Syganiec and another woman were in Henderson’s truck. Both LeSergent and Syganiec were also charged in Maksymic’s killing.

On Jan. 17, 2018, when Henderson first spoke to police, he said he was last at Maksymic’s house a week before his death to fix a broken door handle. Himmelman said he admitted at the time he knew Maksymic was a morphine dealer.

The next day, he called the police officer back and said he didn’t remember where he was the weekend of Nov. 25, 2017, but he could have been at his parents’ house.

On May 16, 2018, police began intercepting Henderson’s private communications after a judge granted them access. Police installed a listening device at Henderson’s house.

Then, on May 25, 2018, police seized Henderson’s pickup truck for investigation.

LeSergent was arrested in September 2018, the court heard. Himmelman said she then told police in a statement the group went to Maksymic’s residence with the intention to steal morphine pills.

She said Henderson parked near the railway tracks on the property, then he, LeSergent and Syganiec approached the house. Henderson kicked down both doors leading in.

Once LeSergent and Syganiec were inside, Maksymic ran at them, LeSergent told police. Syganiec, who was holding a loaded shotgun, shot him in the chest.

Himmelman said they panicked and ran back to the vehicle. The gun broke on the run back to the truck and Syganiec dropped a piece of it.

LeSergent told police they went back to Henderson’s residence, where he cut the gun up with an electric saw and put the pieces in a bucket of bleach.

While on the way back to Henderson’s residence, Himmelman said Henderson threw pieces of the gun out the driver’s side window.

Police found a piece of the double-barrelled shotgun in July 2018, approximately five kilometres from the house.

Henderson was arrested on Sept. 26, 2018. He said he accepted the facts as read by the Crown and pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

Defence lawyer Thomas Rees said Henderson, who wore a grey sweatshirt with the sleeves rolled up, wasn’t the shooter, but is pleading guilty.

During a Gardiner Hearing, which was held to determine the truth of some aggravating factors, Henderson testified he was high on methamphetamine when he arrived at Maksymic’s residence on Nov. 25, 2017 with LeSergent and Syganiec.

The group didn’t have any money on them, so the plan was to steal morphine pills, Henderson said, which could then be sold for meth. One pill could be traded for approximately a gram of meth.

The initial plan was to front the pills from Maksymic. When the group found out he wasn’t home, it morphed into breaking in to steal them, Henderson said.

“My understanding of the plan was to park in the field, walk through the field … then see if anyone was home, make sure nobody was home. Then the plan was for me to gain entrance to the door, then the girls (Syganiec and LeSergent) would run in and steal pills from the coffee table,” he said.

Henderson testified he kicked down both doors into the house and heard a gunshot approximately 10 seconds later.

He said he only saw the gun in Syganiec’s hand after he kicked down the second door but didn’t know at the time if it was loaded.

Henderson is set to be sentenced for the offence at a later date.

Both Syganiec and LeSergent have already been sentenced for their roles in the crime.

Syganiec, who actually shot Maksymic, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in January. LeSergent was sentenced to 12 years in prison during a November 2019 sentencing hearing.

» dmay@brandonsun.com

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