EDMONTON - A man accused of a gruesome murder in our city has pleaded guilty to manslaughter, as well as offering an indignity to human remains..
Joshua Houle, 28, was originally charged with second-degree murder in the death of 27-year old Misty Ward, along with offering an indignity to her remains. It was the 46th and final homicide of 2011.
Ward's body was found inside an apartment on Jasper Ave and 83rd Street last New Year's Eve by building manager Luis Alvarado.
He went to investigate the second-floor suite after noticing pink coloured water leaking from the ceiling. Alvarado said that not even a horror film could describe what he saw when he entered the apartment.
"Right on the wall, lots of blood. On the floor, blood scattered...it was just a bloody messy in there."
The agreed statement of facts says Houle and Ward had been drinking the night before, and may have taken illicit drugs.
Before the two eventually fell asleep, Houle warned Ward that “he had a history of waking up violently if he was startled awake,” said Crown prosecutor Robert Beck. When Ward woke Houle hours later, he immediately stabbed her once in the neck with a nearby steak knife. The blade cut Ward’s jugular vein.
As Ward bled around the apartment, Houle tried to help her by wrapping a towel around her neck, court heard. He then brought her to his bathtub to clean the wound and control the bleeding. In the tub, Ward went into convulsions and Houle could no longer find her pulse.
In intense panic, Houle thought no one would believe his story of how Ward died, Beck said. Houle decided to dismember Ward in the hopes that her body would then be easier to move from his apartment. He did not call 911.
With the same steak knife he used to stab her, Houle cut off Ward’s left leg at the knee and placed the limb by the front door of his suite. Houle then tried to cut off her right leg, but felt sick, stopped and passed out drunk on his bed.
Court heard that Houle had another violent reaction when police woke him after entering his suite, but that he didn’t hurt anyone.
On Tuesday, five of Ward's family members and friends read victim impact statements to the courtroom, saying Misty's death greatly affected their family.
Her sister, Nicole Ward, is upset about the manslaughter charge.
"I think that he deserves more than what he's going to get. He took my baby sister away," she says, adding that this Christmas is going to be hard.
"We don't communicate as well as we used to, we're all coping with a lot here," says Misty Ward's mother, Victoria. "It's not the happy family that we were at one time..Now, we're together no one's laughing and joking around."
Houle also made a statement to the judge, saying he was greatly sorry for what he had done, and that he pleaded guilty knowing he deserves the time.
The Crown is asking for a sentence of 10 years, while the defence is asking for a slightly less than 8 years.
The judge has reserved his decision on sentencing for January 29th.
With files from Quinn Ohler, Global News and Ryan Cormier, Edmonton Journal
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2012.