Keith Napope has been found not guilty of manslaughter in the fatal stabbing of Johnathon Keenatch-Lafond, but guilty of robbing him after a jury deliberated for about 25 hours and heard seven days of testimony.
The jury read the verdict Thursday in Saskatoon’s Court of Queen’s Bench, after three days of deliberations. Napope’s family was present in court for the trial and said they are happy with the decision, despite the mixed verdict.
“We knew he was innocent so we’re just really happy for him,” Devon Napope, Keith’s young brother, said after the verdict. “I’ve been sitting here all day and night waiting for him. I didn’t want him sitting alone. So it just makes me really happy for him and it brings a real sense of gratitude for the system and for the jury.”
Napope was charged with manslaughter and robbery nine months after Keenatch-Lafond died in November 2014.
The Crown called the stabbing a robbery gone wrong after a group of masked men entered the victim’s apartment on the 1400 block of 20th Street West. The jury heard from the victim’s older nephew, Tyrone Lafond, who was “rushed” went he went downstairs to let someone into the apartment. The Crown said Keenatch-Lafond ran a small-scale drug operation out of his apartment and that Lafond helped run drugs in and out of the apartment.
Lafond told court the two men with knives – one man held two knives, the other had one – and that he saw the man with two knives stab his uncle in the leg then take meth and money from his pocket. He said he was able to see one man’s face after the intruder removed his mask. He recognized the man days later at a hospital and identified the man as Keith Napope. During cross-examination, court heard when Lafond was initially interviewed by police he said he didn’t see anyone’s face.
Napope testified he never stepped foot in Keenatch-Lafond’s residence the night of the death, but his DNA was found at the scene.
“Upon our review of their verdict they must have found that he did commit the robbery against Johnathon Keenatch,” Crown prosecutor Bryce Pashovitz told reporters outside court Thursday. “The way that we see the evidence the only way that he could have been found guilty of that is to have him inside the suite the night of the incident.”
Defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle said Napope’s manslaughter acquittal could significantly change his sentence because a home invasion linked to manslaughter can hold a sentence of 10 to 12 years.
“Essentially the maximum sentence we typically see for robbery is the minimum for the type of manslaughter charge he was facing. So it changes the game,” Pfefferle said.
Pfefferle and Pashovitz both expressed their gratitude to the jury for their hard work and said this case is the longest jury deliberations they’ve been involved in.
Napope is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 13.
