Victim's final moments caught on camera, played in courtroom

Family members of a man brutally murdered in Brandon had to excuse themselves from a courtroom on Tuesday as the victim’s final breaths played out on a video captured by a security camera mounted in the hallway outside of his apartment.

The silence of the video was jarring as Bradley Dean Harris’s lips can be seen moving as he screams for help, while his former partner of 22 years, Corinne April McKay, beats him to the ground with a folding camping chair.

Harris, who only had one leg and wasn’t wearing his prosthetic, struggles to push himself against the wall while simultaneously holding his arms up to protect himself. He tries a couple of times to grab the chair from McKay and stop her from swinging it, and in response she starts kicking him in the side.

McKay then disappears to Harris’s apartment for a moment and returns with silver 13-inch blade, stabbing Harris a couple of times until he lies still. Harris suffered a fatal stab wound to his left chest, which cut into his aorta. He also received a defensive stab wound that went right through his left forearm.

McKay can be seen stepping over Harris to go back into his apartment while neighbours nervously try to come to the man’s aid, only to back away when she emerges again, still holding the knife in her hand.

"She came out of the apartment and said, ‘Yeah, help him,’ and they felt intimidated … (one witness) said he heard Ms. McKay say to the deceased as he was lying there ‘You deserved it,’" Crown attorney James Ross told the Brandon Court of Queen’s Bench.

"She didn’t put the knife down until police arrived and she made no effort to help the deceased."

McKay pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in November. On Tuesday, Justice Robert Cummings sentenced her to life in prison, with no chance of parole for 10 years.

Holding up a photo of Harris in the direction of McKay’s seat in court, family members took turns reading out their victim impact statements — describing Harris as a kind, loving man with a good sense of humour, who was looking forward to a promising future creating his artwork.

"When I think of Brad and how he was murdered, I feel deep sadness, anger, loneliness, fear, hate — the emotions I feel change constantly," said Ann Marie Green, Harris’s sister.

"I try to remember him laughing and joking — because I know that’s how Brad would want to be remembered — but it’s always images of Brad’s painful, horrific and brutal death that take control and replay over and over in my mind."

Harris’s killing was motivated by jealousy, Ross said, as well as McKay’s inability to accept that their relationship was over.

In the months leading up to his death, on March 16, 2015, McKay and Harris had separated from their common-law relationship, and Harris had told his family they were making that separation final despite McKay not wanting the relationship to formally end, Ross said.

Harris was living alone at Westman Youth for Christ’s U-Turn project home on the 100 block of Fifth Street, and McKay would frequently show up uninvited, sometimes letting herself in with his passcode before smashing his artwork inside, Ross said.

At one point, police had come to his apartment searching for a gun, Ross said, and Harris told his family he suspected McKay had reported something to police.

His suspicions were correct, Ross said, as McKay reported to police that Harris kept a rifle by his front door and had told her "He was not afraid to use it." She also told police he was "using crack."

Police found no gun, no evidence there had ever been a gun, nor did they find evidence of any drug use in the home, Ross said.

"There was no evidence to support those claims 10 days before his murder," Ross said.

During the same time frame, Harris had befriended a young woman 30 years his junior and maintained a non-romantic relationship with her, Ross said.

On one afternoon, McKay let herself into Harris’s apartment while the younger woman was visiting for tea, and was quite upset to find her there, Ross said.

"I’m drunk, I caught my hubby with a woman. I haven’t drunk in 10 years," McKay wrote in a Facebook message to her cousin two weeks before Harris’s murder.

Additional Facebook messages detail McKay’s obsession with their relationship, her anger, and her mental instability, Ross said.

"I think I might be having a breakdown or something," McKay wrote in another Facebook message the day before the killing. "I think I might have to admit myself to the hospital."

Due to these messages, the Crown got an early forensic order and McKay was seen by a Crown forensic psychiatrist almost right after the event, Ross said, in which she was determined to be criminally responsible.

The forensic psychiatrist did find that McKay struggled with some mental health issues, defence lawyer Zilla Jones told the court, and that she most likely did experience some sort of a breakdown or disassociation due to trauma.

McKay was surrounded by violence and alcohol abuse all her life, experiencing physical, sexual and emotional abuse as a child, Jones added.

While in custody, McKay has participated in every program she can in order to better herself, Jones said, and has expressed significant remorse for her actions.

"She certainly has had a very difficult time with the aftermath of this offence," Jones said. "She still had a lot of love for Mr. Harris."

In a letter to the court read out by Jones, McKay apologized to the court and Harris’s family for her "dreadful offence."

"If I were able to trade places with him, I would — without any hesitation," McKay said through her lawyer. "I will live the rest of my life in shame, remorse, guilt and loneliness."

In speaking with The Brandon Sun outside the courthouse, Green said that although she feels relieved the sentencing is over, the family has yet to find closure.

"I would still like to have seen her charged with first-degree murder … What she actually committed was first degree murder of a disabled, defenceless man," Green said. "That’s something that should have been stressed more strongly, about how disabled he was … he didn’t have a chance."

The family came to Brandon and attended every court hearing, Green said, adding she travels from British Columbia while other family members drive in from Winnipeg.

"We still haven’t put Brad’s ashes away yet. We were waiting for this court sentence to be over. So now we can lay him to rest, too," said Richard Harris, Brad’s older brother. "It’s been a long three years. We all put our lives on hold."

Green said the family is planning on having a summer get-together to celebrate Harris’s life and start healing.

"Brad was always happy, always in an upbeat mood … nothing ever got him down," his sister said. "He always saw the positive and had a great sense of humour ... He had a big heart."

» edebooy@brandonsun.com

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