Woman with schizophrenia pleads guilty to stabbing caretaker in neck

A Winnipeg woman previously found not criminally responsible for stabbing three people is now facing a possible prison sentence for stabbing her apartment caretaker in the neck while in the grip of a psychotic delusion.

Victoria Nuoi, 34, has pleaded guilty to one count of aggravated assault for the April 2025 attack.

At a hearing Tuesday, Crown attorney Marla Bettencourt recommended Nuoi, who lives with schizophrenia, be sentenced to four years in prison, while her lawyer Chris Gamby urged provincial court Judge Dale Harvey to sentence her to three years supervised probation.

Harvey reserved his decision, saying he needed time to consider the widely disparate recommendations.

Harvey expressed concern the “general public” would not appreciate “the nuances of the nature of mental illness and the impact it can have on someone and being the cause of subsequent behaviour.”

The court must consider only what is a just decision in the circumstances, not one that is agreeable to the public, Gamby said.

“I don’t know that we can craft sentences in accordance with what the general public may think,” Gamby said. “They may not appreciate that nuance, but that nuance is where this decision lies ultimately.”

In 2017, Nuoi was found not criminally responsible for stabbing three people in two separate attacks on the same day. Nuoi stabbed a male apartment neighbour in the neck and later stabbed a second man in the abdomen as he was picking up his child at school. A third victim was stabbed in the abdomen after they came to the second man’s aid.

Later, while undergoing a psychiatric assessment at Health Sciences Centre, Nuoi stabbed a security guard in the neck with a pair of scissors. Nuoi was found criminally responsible for that attack, pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon and was sentenced to one year probation.

Nuoi remained in psychiatric care under the supervision of the Criminal Code Review Board until she was discharged in September 2023 and moved back into the community, court heard.

She lived for a time with family outside the city before moving back to Winnipeg in February 2025. Nuoi, who had a prior history of substance abuse, “began to increasingly use alcohol and methamphetamine” and stopped taking her schizophrenia medication to avoid blackouts, Bettencourt said.

Nuoi was living in an apartment building on the 400 block of Langside Street on April 9, 2025, when she consumed meth and experienced auditory hallucinations in the voices of family members telling her she needed to “sacrifice” someone or her family would be killed.

Early that evening, the building caretaker was mopping in the stairwell when Nuoi opened her apartment door and stabbed him with a kitchen knife once in the back of his neck before retreating back to her suite.

The victim fled to the basement and called police. Nuoi was arrested in her suite a short time later.

En route to police headquarters, Nuoi said: “So what if I stabbed him?” and “Who cares if I stabbed him? We are all going to die one day.”

According to a pre-sentence report prepared for court, Nuoi “has shown a repeated pattern of dropping support from mental health services and a continued pattern of periodic medication use, preferring alcohol usage as a form of self-medicating.”

Nuoi resumed abusing meth and alcohol, knowing not taking her schizophrenia medication would pose a danger to the community, Bettencourt said.

Nuoi’s victim spent one night in hospital and received four staples to the back of his neck.

“The injuries (to the victim) while thankfully not life-altering, are concerning,” Bettencourt said. “The fact (he) did not suffer more life-threatening or catastrophic injuries is by sheer luck.”

Gamby said alcohol has been a “persistent problem” for Nuoi and argued a probationary sentence would allow for a longer period of community supervision to address her personal challenges.

“She is not the normal offender we see in the court,” Gamby said. “She is not someone who is criminally entrenched.”

“She has spent the last 10 years battling an illness that would not let her win,” he said. “Her addictions add an additional layer of complexity.”

Nuoi told court she is now “medication compliant” and prays every day for her victim, saying the attack was “senseless” and “not personal.”

“I want nothing more than to be a peaceful, respectful member of society,” she said.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca