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Winnipeg Serial Killer John Ostamas Who Targeted Homeless Men Gets Life Sentence

The Canadian Press, 03 May, 2016 01:13 PM
    WINNIPEG — A man has admitted to killing three homeless men in Winnipeg.
     
    John Ostamas pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for the deaths that occurred in April 2015.
     
    The 40-year-old faces an automatic life sentence and a judge is to decide his parole eligibility on June 27.
     
    Court heard Ostamas attacked Myles Monias, who was 37, in a downtown bus shelter on April 10, 2015.
     
    Two weeks later, Donald Collins, who was 65, was killed in a back alley and 48-year-old Stony Bushie was killed in a parkade.
     
    Defence lawyer Greg Brodsky says his client told police that the killings were out of revenge, but Brodsky said that's not the case.
     
    "He’s claiming, in the agreed statement of facts, that what he did was vengeance for people who raped his girlfriend," Brodsky told reporters outside the courthouse Tuesday.
     
    "If he did exact vengeance and went out to find the people that did that, and kill them as a result, that would be first-degree murder. We're not pleading to first-degree murder. That’s him puffing himself up."

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