No bail for woman accused of aggravated assault

A woman accused of assaulting another woman by repeatedly punching her and sticking her fingers in her eyes and mouth was denied bail in Brandon provincial court on Wednesday.

Shantelle Beaulieu, 32, is charged with aggravated assault, assault causing bodily harm, possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose and two counts of failing to comply with her release order.

The Crown opposed Beaulieu’s release, citing concerns about public safety and her willingness to follow court-ordered conditions and show up to court.

Crown attorney Grant Hughes detailed the allegations, which haven’t been proven in court.

On March 4, 2025, Brandon police received a report that a woman had been stabbed in the eye at an apartment building on Ninth Street. When police arrived, they saw a woman with a bleeding face leaving the building.

“She was covering the affected area with her hands and paper towel. The officer saw blood running down her hands and arms. Her clothing was covered in drops of blood,” Hughes said.

The woman told police she hadn’t been stabbed in the eye but had been beaten and gave descriptions of the two suspects, a man and a woman.

While in the hospital, the woman gave a statement to police. She said she was at her friend’s apartment when a man and woman started talking to her friend.

The woman told police her name was mentioned at one point, and the man and woman immediately started punching the complainant in the face several times, Hughes said.

“(She) stated that it was completely unprovoked and uncalled for,” Hughes said.

The woman suspect pushed the complainant to the ground and “began to stick her fingers into her mouth and eyes,” the Crown said.

Once she was on the ground, the man repeatedly kicked her in the head, court heard.

The woman who the complainant was originally with at the apartment ran out of the building during the attack.

The assailants eventually stopped assaulting the complainant and left.

Medical reports showed the complainant sustained a broken nose with minimal displacement and a cut on her right eyelid that required sutures, court heard.

Beaulieu was arrested, and on March 10, she was released after a contested bail hearing under several conditions, including that she would not have contact with the co-accused.

On Jan. 11, police were on general patrol in the 600 block of Sixth Street when they saw a vehicle with no licence plates on it. Police pulled the car over and saw Beaulieu in the driver’s seat and the co-accused in the passenger seat. Officers arrested Beaulieu, and she has remained in custody since.

Hughes said Beaulieu’s criminal record reflects the Crown’s concerns. Beaulieu had four convictions for violence or weapons-related offences, one conviction for breaching court orders and five convictions for failing to attend court, he said.

“This is a violent situation,” the Crown said, adding that the injuries matched the described assault.

“By sticking her fingers and thumbs into her mouth and eyes, it could cause significant damage.”

Defence lawyer Gregory Sacks said a lot of Beaulieu’s involvement with the criminal justice system stems from her addiction.

He pointed out that Beaulieu was released from custody straight into a treatment program, where she did “quite well” for a few months before there was a “breakdown in the relationship.”

In response to the Crown’s comments about her convictions for failing to attend court, Sacks said she “was in a very different place,” and her trial, which is set to start on March 10, is only a few weeks away.

“I understand that certainly the injuries themselves are certainly concerning, the circumstances surrounding them are concerning,” he said, but despite this, the Crown still needs to prove Beaulieu’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Sacks said there will be some triable issues, but didn’t say what they were.

Sacks said that while breaching court orders is serious and still a crime, Beaulieu wasn’t brought back to court for substantive reoffending.

“From a public safety standpoint, it does pose a different issue,” Sacks said. “We’re not dealing with somebody who’s found to be spinning out of control … There’s no allegations of further violence.”

He outlined some of Beaulieu’s personal circumstances, including that she has experienced trauma and dealt with it by “medicating herself,” developing an addiction, which has led to her involvement with police.

Sacks proposed a bail plan with a $3,000 promise to pay and several conditions, including that she live with her father in Amaranth under as strict of a curfew as the court deemed necessary, not possess weapons and not have contact with the complainant or co-accused.

Judge Patrick Sullivan said he was the judge who released Beaulieu after her contested bail hearing and released her “by a very narrow margin.” He said her prior bail plan included the condition that she live at the treatment centre until she finished treatment, which is what gave the court comfort to release Beaulieu.

The proposed bail plan did not have the same “robust” conditions, and he denied Beaulieu’s release.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com