There will be no trial for the man accused of killing 36-year-old Victoria Head in November 2017.
Steven Bragg had been charged with first-degree murder but in a surprise twist this morning he pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree.
BREAKING: Steven Bragg changes plea to guilty of second-degree murder of Victoria Head. There will be no trial. @VOCMNEWS
— Brian Callahan (@briancallahan67) May 31, 2021
Victoria Head’s body was found in a field off O’Brien’s Farm Road near Mount Scio by a woman out for an early-morning walk with her dog.
It was just after 8 a.m. on November 11th, 2017.
An autopsy days later confirmed the victim was strangled to death with a boot lace.
Bragg wasn’t a suspect until the victim’s brother mentioned that the two knew each other in an interview with police.
Bragg, meanwhile, was boarding the ferry at Port Aux Basques, on his way, he said, to visit friends in New Brunswick after selling his car for a hundred dollars.
Police later reached him on the mainland at which point he admitted he knew the woman but said he hadn’t seen her in weeks.
But investigators were putting together evidence from cellphones and video surveillance that put Bragg and Victoria Head together in the hours before her death.
Bragg admits using boot lace to strangle Victoria Head on Nov. 11, 2017. @VOCMNEWS
— Brian Callahan (@briancallahan67) May 31, 2021
That, along with DNA on the boot lace and the victim’s pants, caused Bragg to look skyward and shake his head in court at the sheer mountain of evidence against him.
With sentencing still to come, neither the family of the victim nor lawyers would comment today on the sudden turn of events.
Bragg had been free on conditions until his trial, but with the guilty plea today, Justice Donald Burrage ordered him to be taken into custody.
Sentencing is set for next month.