Man accused in Rankin Inlet killing pleads guilty to manslaughter

Dwayne Sateana, 31, pleaded guilty to manslaughter Dec. 9 for killing his 25-year-old girlfriend, Edith Angalik, in November 2014. (FILE PHOTO)

Dwayne Sateana, a Rankin Inlet man facing a second degree murder charge in connection with the death of his 25-year-old girlfriend in November 2014, has pleaded guilty to the lesser included charge of manslaughter.

Sateana’s lawyer, James Morton, had elected for trial by judge sitting alone on the murder charge, but his client pleaded guilty Dec. 9 to the lesser included offence of manslaughter.

That manslaughter plea was entered in an Iqaluit courtroom with the consent of Crown prosecutors.

“Not guilty to the charge of second-degree murder, but guilty to the lesser, included charge of manslaughter,” James Morton, Sateana’s lawyer, told Justice Robert Kilpatrick at the Nunavut Court of Justice Dec. 9.

Sentencing on the manslaughter conviction will occur in Rankin Inlet, but a date has yet to be set.

At the sentencing hearing, Sateana is also expected to enter a plea on a charge of assaulting a police officer.

Sateana, now 31, appeared via video-link from the Surrey Remand Centre in British Columbia.

Sateana was charged with killing Edith Angalik, a 25-year-old mother of two, shortly after her naked body was discovered in the Area 5 section of Rankin Inlet on Nov. 22, 2014.