Man serving time for 2018 second-degree murder pleads guilty to manslaughter in 2024 prison slaying

A Manitoba man is now serving his second life sentence in prison after an unexplained technical mistake resulted in a fatal seven-on-one attack on another inmate.

Randal Hastings pleaded guilty Monday to manslaughter for his part in the July 2024 killing of 37-year-old Dean Tyler Young at Stony Mountain Institution.

Hastings, 33, was previously convicted of second-degree murder for a 2018 killing in Thompson and, at the time of Young’s death, was serving a life sentence with no chance of parole until 2033. His latest sentence comes with a seven-year period of parole ineligibility.

“It may be a very long time before any parole board is asked to consider whether you can and ought to be safely released into the community,” Court of King’s Bench Justice Sarah Inness told Hastings.

Court heard Hastings now being held in prison in Saskatchewan and continues to pose a danger to other inmates and corrections staff.

“It’s how you behave moving forward that will determine your future,” Inness said.

Court heard Hastings and six co-accused occupied cells in the main floor of G range, while Young’s cell was on the second floor. Inmates on one floor were not to be out of their cells at the same time as inmates on the other floor, as they were considered “incompatibles,” said Crown attorney Sivananthan Sivarouban.

“For reasons that are not known to us, Dean Young’s cell door was open at the same time as a group of incompatibles,” Sivarouban said. “A group of inmates observe(d) Mr. Young’s cell door (was) open and there (was) an opportunity to attack him.”

Prison security video showed five armed inmates run upstairs past Young’s cell door, then turn back and walk into his cell.

Seconds later, Young ran out of his cell, bleeding from his upper chest.

Young ran downstairs where two more inmates, one of them Hastings, assaulted him.

“(Hastings) jumped in when it should have been clear the victim was already severely injured,” Sivarouban said.

Security video showed Hastings punching Young two times before the other inmates rejoined the attack. The inmates continued to beat Young for another minute before corrections officers intervened.

Hastings wasn’t positively identified and arrested until Jan. 6, 2025.

When the cell doors on Young’s section of the range were unexpectedly opened, the range “went from calm to an absolute melee in a matter of seconds,” said Young’s lawyer Carley Mahoney.

“I fully expect there will be an inquest or inquiry into this matter down the road, given the way this has come about,” Mahoney said.

In fact, the province’s chief medical examiner called an inquest into Young’s death last April. No dates have been set.

Hastings is the first of the seven accused inmates to enter a plea in Young’s killing.

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca