A man charged in a pair of stabbings in central Edmonton seven years ago has been found guilty of manslaughter. 

Clayton Berard, 45, was found guilty of manslaughter and aggravated assault on Monday. The charges stem from two separate incidents in 2019. 

The first victim was 48-year-old Ida Rosalie Knife, known as Rose Knife. She was fatally stabbed on the morning of March 28, 2019, shortly after leaving the George Spady Centre. 

Court heard she had spent the night at the shelter and was leaving around 7 a.m. when she was attacked.

Witness testimony during the trial described Knife as a familiar presence at the shelter, known for her loud and playful personality. 

On the morning of her death, a staff member said she had been yelling at others to wake up before an argument broke out shortly before she left.

The staff member told the court she did not know who the man that was yelling back at her was, and didn’t get a good look at his face.

She was stabbed multiple times and later died in hospital.

Justice Thomas Rothwell said the Crown’s case relied heavily on circumstantial evidence, citing a lack of eyewitness testimony directly identifying the attacker. However, he concluded Berard was responsible for the attack.

Rothwell said the evidence left him with a reasonable doubt about whether Berard intended to kill either victim, after a forensic psychiatrist found he was likely in active psychosis at the time of the killings.

Hours after Knife’s death, staff at Boyle Street Community Services began setting up a memorial space as news of the attack spread through the community. 

A former community safety liaison at Boyle Street, testified during the trial that Berard had been sitting alone inside the drop-in centre for an extended period that day, behaviour he described as unusual. 

About 12 hours after the fatal stabbing, a second attack occurred outside Boyle Street Community Services.

Albert Stevens, a man in his late 40s, was stabbed repeatedly in the neck and face. He survived after undergoing several surgeries.

Court heard Stevens’s DNA was found on a knife seized from Berard at the time of his arrest. 

Rothwell found Berard guilty of aggravated assault in the attack, but not attempted murder.

Testimony during the trial highlighted the lasting impact of the attack on Stevens’s life. 

A former caseworker said that prior to 2019, he had been working, housed, and had recently completed addiction treatment. After the stabbing, he struggled to speak, had difficulty swallowing and became socially withdrawn.

Stevens was later evicted from his housing and moved into Boyle Street bridge housing. He died in April 2022 from causes unrelated to the stabbing.

Berard had originally been charged with first-degree murder in Knife’s death, later reduced to second-degree murder before the manslaughter conviction.

The court also heard Berard suffers from chronic anxiety and schizophrenia.

In a separate case, Berard previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the 2019 killing of his Edmonton Remand Centre cellmate, Bruce Windsor. 

He admitted to beating and strangling Windsor shortly after the 57-year-old arrived in the protective custody unit.

Sentencing dates for the convictions have not yet been set.