Convicted serial killer Jeremy Skibicki has been sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.
A judge convicted Skibicki last month of first-degree murder in the 2022 slayings of four Indigenous women.
The trial heard Skibicki targeted the women at homeless shelters, then strangled or drowned them before disposing of their remains in garbage bins.
The killings came to light when a man looking for scrap metal found the partial remains of 24-year-old Rebecca Contois in a dumpster in Skibicki’s neighbourhood. More of her remains were discovered at a city-run landfill.
During a police interrogation, Skibicki admitted to killing Contois and the three other women: Morgan Harris, 39; Marcedes Myran, 26; and an unidentified woman an Indigenous grassroots community has named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.
Skibicki told police the killings were racially motivated and cited white supremacist beliefs.
At trial, a defence lawyer said Skibicki admitted to the killings but was too mentally ill to be held criminally responsible.
Court of King’s Bench Justice Glenn Joyal said he agreed with a psychiatrist who testified for the Crown that Skibicki didn’t have a mental disorder that affected his ability to know the killings were morally wrong.
–With files from The Canadian Press