Nunavut man gets automatic life term for killing 16-year-old boy
“He appears to have a pathological capacity for selfishness”
Justice Andrew Mahar of the Nunavut court said this week that he hopes Corrections Canada “will look long and hard” before considering parole for a Cape Dorset man convicted this week in the bloody stabbing death of a 16-year-old boy.
Mathewsie Alariaq, 28, of Cape Dorset, pleaded guilty Nov. 5 to second degree murder in the killing of 16-year-old Karl Qinnuayuaq on the morning of April 16, 2012. (See document embedded below.)
After an extended drinking, stealing and fighting spree that started April 15, Alariaq broke into the house occupied by Qinnuayuaq, his mother Adla and his brother Audlaluk, where he stabbed Karl Qinnuayuaq 51 times while the boy lay in bed.
“Karl’s murder falls into the category of killings which can be described as starkly horrible,” Mahar said in a sentencing judgment given Nov. 6.
Prior to the murder, Alariaq had separated from his girlfriend and had been ordered by the court to stay away from her.
Following that separation, Adla Qinnuayuaq had taken him in to stay at her home, where she lived with her two sons.
On April 15, Alariaq told Adla Qinnuayuaq that he planned to stay with his girlfriend but, after confronting his girlfriend, Alariaq ended up not spending the night with her.
Instead, he and two teenage boys broke into the empty residence of his cousin, Jamesie Alariaq, who was in Iqaluit at the time. There they stole carvings, cash and liquor, which they drank.
After that, Alariaq headed to the home of Lucassie Mikkigak, who tried to throw him out. In the ensuing fight, Alariaq slashed Mikkigak in the face and neck with a box-cutter.
Around 6 a.m. on April 16, Alariaq arrived back at Adla Qinnuayuaq’s home, where he found a locked door. After no one responded to his knocking, Alariaq kicked the door in.
After he got inside, the woman told him she wished she hadn’t let him live at her house.
Enraged, Alariaq said he wanted to kill himself, but before doing that said he would kill Karl “to show everyone how angry he was,” Mahar said in his judgment.
He took a red-handled hunting knife he stole from his cousin, walked into Karl Qinnuayuaq’s bedroom and inflicted 51 knife wounds on the 16-year-old boy, injuring his head, neck, trunk and arms.
Although the boy “fought desperately” to save his life,” five of those wounds penetrated his chest and abdomen and he bled to death.
Before police arrived, Alariaq fled to his cousin’s house, where he barricaded himself and prepared for a lengthy standoff. He was armed with “numerous weapons,” Mahar said.
The RCMP flew an emergency response team into Cape Dorset and cordoned off much of the area around the barricaded house.
After hours of negotiations, Alariaq gave himself up at about 4:30 p.m. that day. He was later charged with a variety of offences, including second degree murder.
Alariaq’s Nov. 5 guilty plea to second degree murder triggers a mandatory life sentence and minimum parole ineligibility period of 10 years, with a maximum of 25.
Crown and defence lawyers agreed Alariaq should serve 12 years before being eligible for parole.
But Mahar said Alariaq could have been considered for a parole ineligibility period of 15 years.
“Were it not for the guilty plea, a parole ineligibility period of greater than 15 years would likely have been imposed,” Mahar said.
And Mahar said Alariaq acted like a “bully and a trouble maker” while in detention at the Baffin Correctional Centre.
There, while sober, he beat up Karl Qinnuayuaq’s older brother.
“His behaviour shows a pattern of disregard for others and is at odds with his claims of an ongoing state of remorse,” Mahar said.
Mahar also said Alariaq seems to suffer from “a pathological capacity for selfishness.”
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