Kirk Keeping pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Chantal John in a Grand Falls-Windsor courtroom this morning.
This, after maintaining his innocence since his arrest more than five years ago.
Keeping’s first-degree murder trial was supposed to start in 2021.
But he famously fired his two experienced Legal Aid lawyers at the last minute, sending the case into a tailspin of applications and appeals for a private lawyer of his choice.
He lost that fight at every court level, frustrating judges along the way who were all too aware of the toll the delays were having on Chantal John’s family, friends and the community of Conne River.
In exchange for guilty pleas, the Crown reduced first-degree to second-degree, and lessened an attempted murder charge to assault with a weapon involving the victim’s mother.
Keeping waited until the last legal minute to admit he killed 28-year-old Chantal John.
Still, the guilty plea will save everyone the additional toll of a six-week trial, and all that would entail.
The horrible details of what happened that January day in 2019 were read aloud in court as part of the agreed statement of facts, copies of which have yet to be distributed to media.
The sentencing phase will be addressed when the case is called again on June 20.