SASKATOON – A man convicted Thursday of killing Randell Beauchesne in June 2022 is “capable of extreme violence,” viewed “violence as normal,” and was a “high-risk to re-offend,” warned a January 2019 parole report when he was released from prison for the stabbing death of Daniel Barata in Edmonton in May 2012.
On Feb. 1, Kevin Charles Witchekan, 41, was sentenced to life in prison – with parole eligibility in 10 years – for killing Beauchesne by plunging a screwdriver through his brain on June 13, 2022, at the Royal University Hospital in Saskatoon.
Just a decade prior, Witchekan had been sentenced to five years in prison for stabbing Barata while trying to rob him in Edmonton in May 2012, according to parole documents obtained by SASKTODAY.
In Barata’s death, Witchekan was charged with second-degree murder but pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
On Monday, Witchekan’s non-jury trial started in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench on a charge of second-degree murder in Beauchesne’s death. Two days into the trial, Witchekan changed his plea to guilty.
Beauchesne’s murder at RUH was a case of mistaken identity, court heard. Witchekan had mistaken Beauchesne for a drug dealer he claimed was charging too much for methamphetamine and cocaine, getting his wife and daughter hooked on IV drugs and having sex with them.
Video surveillance that captured the grisly attack inside RUH near the cafeteria was played in court Monday.
The video showed Beauchesne backing up and trying to get away from Witchekan. Beauchesne was then stabbed three times in the head with the screwdriver and he collapsed on the hospital floor.
Witchekan laughed after he drove the screwdriver through Randell Beauchesne’s brain, court heard.
Witchekan’s January 2019 parole report reveals that when he was a child, he received a number of burns from a woodstove when he was left unattended.
Witchekan, who is originally from Spiritwood, had family members who were in residential schools. Due to his parents’ alcohol addiction, he was placed in foster care and was abused in care, according to the parole report. He dropped out of school at the age of 12, suffered from depression and started abusing drugs and alcohol and associating with negative peers.
His binge drinking and blackouts started at a young age and continued into his adulthood.
He was only able to practice his Indigenous traditions when he lived with his grandmother. His disruptive formative years played a significant role in his longstanding patterns of poor decision making, hanging out with negative peers, and abusing substances to cope.
“Your childhood appears to have been marked by disruption, trauma and abuse,” said the parole report.
This report by SASKTODAY first published on Feb. 2, 2024.
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