Mike on Crime

By Mike McIntyre
Winnipeg Free Press

He is accused of killing a Winnipeg mother of two by stabbing her at least 51 times, leaving her half-naked body in a pool of blood and bragging to friends and co-workers about what he’d done.

But Daniel Johnson’s attempt to plead guilty to the crime was met with rejection Monday at the start of his jury trial.

Johnson, 21, stood up and admitted to a charge of manslaughter, which suggests the September 2006 attack was unintentional. The Crown refused to accept the plea, saying they are seeking a first-degree murder conviction. They believe the homicide was both cold-blooded and committed in the course of an attempted sexual assault.

Crown attorney Christina Kopynsky publicly outlined details of the case for the first time, warning jurors that what they see and hear during the trial will be “extremely unpleasant.”

Jaylene Lindsey Crane was stabbed repeatedly behind an apartment block at 776 Ellice Avenue. The 19-year-old woman was pronounced dead at the scene. Police and paramedics found stab wounds throughout her body. Her pants were pulled down and a condom was found at the scene.

Police initially spoke with several people in the immediate area, including Johnson. Officers noticed a red stain on one of his shoes, which the employee of the Portage Place Tim Horton’s claimed was from a jelly doughnut, court was told. He was quickly released without further questioning or testing.

The killing went unsolved for several days as homicide detectives made public pleas for help, describing Crane’s death as one of the most violent they had seen in recent years. Police got a break when a woman came forward, saying her friend had been “acting strangely.”

“He was saying things like he was sorry what he did to that girl,” Kopynsky told jurors. Police began to build a case against Johnson and quickly learned he had made similar comments to many other people.

One man said he had been walking through the West End on the morning of the murder when a clearly upset Johnson approached him, claiming, “I just killed some bitch.” When asked why, Johnson told his friend the woman owed him $500. The man said Johnson walked him by the scene of the crime, carefully explaining what he’d done.

Johnson allegedly told another man he took the woman behind the building to rape her as “punishment” for owing him money, then stabbed her.

Johnson also text-messaged a co-worker at Tim Hortons, saying “I think I did something stupid.” He later met up with the woman and confessed to the killing, saying he’d buried the knife in a neighbourhood garden “and the police will never find it.” The woman said Johnson later used a sword to demonstrate how he stabbed Crane to death.

“He said he’s got a really bad temper, that it takes a lot to piss him off but when he does he really loses it,” Kopynsky said Monday.

The friends eventually gave statements to police and are expected to testify — including another man who said Johnson confessed he hid the murder clothes in the wall of his bedroom. Police ultimately got a search warrant, ripped down the wall and found a T-shirt and sweat pants hidden inside. Forensic tests showed they had Crane’s DNA on them, as did Johnson’s shoe.

Johnson allegedly told one of his friends that, if arrested, he planned to plead “temporary insanity” on the basis he’d consumed several types of drugs and alcohol around the time of the killing.