Inmate tackled in court following guilty plea

Sheriffs in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench had to tackle an aggressive inmate to the ground on his way out of the courtroom after he and his co-accused pleaded guilty to manslaughter.

As sheriffs were escorting Joseph Lindsay, 38, out of the courtroom on Thursday, he yelled to his co-accused, who appeared from custody via video, “Can you believe this s—?” A sheriff tried to move Lindsay along, but he yelled, “Don’t f—ing touch me,” and started thrashing.

Multiple sheriffs took him to the ground, while others cleared the gallery.

Lindsay and Redstone Wombdiska, 30, were charged with first-degree murder in the 2022 death of 37-year-old James Vernon Giesbrecht. Both men pleaded guilty to manslaughter instead, which was the result of a true plea bargain, court heard.

Christopher Cutlip, 43, was charged with second-degree murder in connection with Giesbrecht’s death, but the charge was stayed in 2024. On Thursday, Crown attorney Daniel Chaput said Cutlip was an “immunized witness.”

Chaput read an agreed statement of facts.

Lindsay, Wombdiska, Cutlip and the victim all knew each other through the drug subculture in Brandon, Chaput said.

On Oct. 12, 2022, Lindsay and Wombdiska went to Cutlip’s residence, knowing that Giesbrecht would be there, court heard. Cutlip let Wombdiska and Lindsay into the residence, and the two men “set upon” the victim, Chaput said.

“He was overpowered, knocked to the ground and assaulted by the accused,” the Crown said. “He was then confined to a chair and beaten further.”

At the direction of Lindsay, Wombdiska got in a stolen Honda Accord, which he already had, and backed it up to the residence, he said.

“Lindsay and Wombdiska escorted the bound victim out of the residence, walked him to the rear of the Honda Accord and placed him in the trunk,” Chaput said.

On Oct. 13, 2022, Blue Hills RCMP received a call at around 5:30 a.m., regarding a vehicle engulfed in flames on a gravel road just outside of Brandon.

Once the flames had been extinguished, emergency personnel and officers responded and could smell burning flesh, Chaput said.

He said they found human remains in the trunk of the car.

The vehicle was eventually identified as the stolen Honda Accord that had last been seen driven by Wombdiska, and the remains were identified as Giesbrecht’s, court heard.

After an autopsy, it was determined Giesbrecht’s cause of death was a single stab wound to his back that had penetrated a lung and that he was already dead when the fire was set, Chaput said.

He said additional injuries included fractures to his head from blunt force trauma.

Chaput said Cutlip was the only witness to the assault, confinement and movement of the victim from his residence. Nothing more is known about where the victim had been taken after leaving Cutlip’s residence or who inflicted the stab wound.

“The case for the Crown rests on the acceptance of Cutlip’s account as both accurate and truthful, and singular circumstantial inferences as to the continued involvement and culpability of Lindsay and Wombdiska in the killing,” the Crown said.

Lindsay’s lawyer, Barry Sinder, said there will be a joint recommendation for a sentence of 17 years in prison for his client. Wombdiska’s lawyer, Taralee Walker, didn’t indicate whether there would be a joint recommendation or what length of sentence she would recommend for her client.

The two men are scheduled for sentencing in Brandon’s Court of King’s Bench on July 20.

» sanderson@brandonsun.com