Man accused of killing five family members fires second legal team, but murder trial won’t be delayed, judge warns

A Manitoba man accused of killing five family members is once again looking for new lawyers to represent him at trial.

But Ryan Manoakeesick will stand trial, with or without a lawyer in April 2027, a judge warned him Thursday.

“I want to be clear, Mr. Manoakeesick, that the trial dates that have been set are going to remain,” King’s Bench Justice Candace Grammond told him. “Those trial dates are effectively written in stone.

“You may think that is a long time in the future, but in a trial of this kind you need to make sure you have appropriate representation and you will be ready to attend to the matter on that date.”

Manoakeesick, 32, is set to stand trial beginning April 5 on five counts of first-degree murder in the February 2024 killings of his common-law partner, 30-year-old Amanda Clearwater, their three children — two-month-old Isabella, four-year-old Jayven and six-year-old Bethany — and Clearwater’s 17-year-old cousin Myah-Lee Gratton.

Manoakeesick’s court appearance Thursday had been set for him to enter pleas in the killings, but in recent days there had been a “change in circumstance,” with Manoakeesick indicating he wanted to seek new legal counsel, Crown attorney Mike Himmelman told Grammond.

Defence lawyer Crystal Antila told Grammond there has been “a lot of difficulty within the solicitor-client relationship” and Manoakeesick wanted to “explore the possibility of finding other counsel.”

Grammond allowed Antila and co-counsel Candace Olson to withdraw as trial counsel, but they will continue to act as amicus, or “friends of the court” who will advise Manoakeesick in the event he does not find a new legal team and represents himself at trial.

“I want to make sure this matter is preserved in the best possible way in your interests and in the interests of the process,” Grammond told him.

Manoakeesick fired his first set of lawyers in January, ultimately derailing a trial scheduled for April.

Manoakeesick, Clearwater and their children lived together in Carman, about 75 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

Clearwater’s death was initially reported as a hit-and-run incident at about 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 11. Her body was found in a ditch next to Highway 3, about seven kilometres south of Carman.

The three children were found dead near a burning vehicle on Provincial Road 248, about 70 kilometres north of Carman, at about 10 a.m. Manoakeesick was arrested near the vehicle, from which he had pulled his children before being arrested, RCMP said.

Gratton’s body was found inside the family home. Prior to her death, she left voicemail messages with her Child and Family Services worker, pleading to be moved out of the home, and told friends Manoakeesick was prone to violent outbursts, her mother previously said.

Manoakeesick was declared fit to stand trial in March 2024, after his then-lawyers sought an assessment to determine whether he was mentally able to stand trial and provide instructions to his lawyers.

The Progressive Conservatives repeated their call in question period Thursday for the NDP government to hold a public inquiry into Manitoba’s child welfare system, citing the deaths of Gratton and a four-year-old girl who was found injured in a Long Plain First Nation home Aug. 9.

In 2024, Premier Wab Kinew did not rule out an inquiry if systemic questions remain about what went wrong in Gratton’s case after criminal proceedings wrap up.

— With files from Chris Kitching

dean.pritchard@freepress.mb.ca