Mother of slain woman ejected from court after voicing anguish at sentencing hearing

WARNING: This story contains strong language.  

A grieving mother was ejected from a Moncton courtroom Thursday shortly before a judge ruled a woman would serve no additional jail time for helping her daughter's killer get away.

Megan Marten, 41, of Fredericton was being sentenced on a charge of being an accessory after the fact to manslaughter in the July 11, 2023, death of Kyla Cindy LaPointe.

Marten admitted she stood over LaPointe's bleeding body for about two minutes after Dylan Jackson stabbed the 32-year-old in the back, didn't call for help, and then drove Jackson away from the scene.

"Megan, I hate you with every fibre of my spirit, my core, everything," LaPointe's mother, Nicole Blanchard, yelled at Marten in the courtroom prisoner's box.

As Justice Robert Dysart asked Blanchard to stick to her written victim impact statement, she continued.

'You took my first baby from me'

"Your time is going to come. Karma will get you. You took my first baby from me. As much as I'm hurting, as much as I'm in pain, I wouldn't even wish that on you, a f---king monster like you….You will be out one day, and we will meet. You killed my daughter, you f--king b--h."

Multiple court sheriffs approached Blanchard and began to removing her. 

"You were covered in her f--king blood and walked away as she was dying," Blanchard yelled while being escorted out of the courtroom, followed by several people in the courtroom gallery clapping. Another person walked out, calling the process a farce. 

Marten had faced a second-degree murder charge, but pleaded guilty in February to the accessory charge.

Marten was given the chance to address the court, but said nothing.

Her defence lawyer and the judge noted that she had expressed remorse during the preparation of a pre-sentence report.

Crown and defence lawyers jointly recommended a sentence of almost 2½ years. Crown prosecutor Robert Johnston said sentences imposed for the crime range from 18 to 30 months. 

However, Marten was credited 1½ days for each day spent in custody since her arrest. As a result, the sentence was no further time in jail. 

Judge accepts sentence

The Supreme Court of Canada has directed judges to generally follow joint recommendations.

Dysart ruled the sentence was suitable after reviewing the circumstances of the case, sentences imposed in similar cases, Marten's Indigenous background, her guilty plea and lack of a prior criminal record.

"She has served her sentence," Dysart said in his decision. 

Dysart described her actions as a "jarring, morally reprehensible act."

Marten was ordered to submit a DNA sample and was prohibited from possessing firearms for 10 years. 

Dysart expressed condolences to LaPointe's family, saying no sentence would bring their loved one back but he hoped it would bring some closure.

Family, friends voice grief

Prior to the sentence being imposed, Dysart heard victim impact statements from four people and read several other written statements. 

The statement described LaPointe as struggling in her early life in the foster system, but using that experience to advocate for improvements to the system to help protect other children. 

She was described as a kind, loving mother of four. 

"She was grace, poise and patience," Sadie Sloan said of her friend. 

Laura Aubé, LaPointe's stepmother, spoke about how some of LaPointe's children would grow up without their own memories of their mother and how the children wouldn't get to experience life's firsts with LaPointe.

"She was my girl, and she was not finished living her life," Aubé said. "I'm angry, and I hope the court knows how much she was loved and how much she loved."

Blanchard said she had only begun to feel normal again after the death of another daughter in 2015. Then LaPointe was killed. She said after one difficult day in court, she considered taking her own life but didn't want to cause her family more pain. 

Blanchard said Marten didn't deserve to walk free after what happened. 

"My heart hurts to know how scared and confused my daughter must have been to be stabbed from behind and then … bleeding out and struggling to breath," Blanchard said through tears. 

"Did she ask you for help? Did she look at you with fear in her eyes?"

Blanchard later began saying things that weren't in the written version of her victim impact statement, leading to her ejection from court. 

There were more sheriffs in the courtroom than normal for the sentencing, and two uniformed RCMP officers sat in the hall outside the courtroom. 

The facts Marten admitted to were outlined in a document when she pleaded guilty in February. 

Jackson and LaPointe were part of a group of five that travelled from Fredericton to Moncton to buy fentanyl.

LaPointe and her boyfriend, Brody Leblanc, went to the drug dealer's apartment while Jackson and Megan Marten waited in a car with another man. The transaction took longer than expected, and LaPointe left and wandered around Moncton.

Eventually, she walked past the car on Belleview Avenue where the three others, including Marten and Jackson, were waiting. What followed was captured on video. Jackson ran up behind her, stabbed her immediately, then went back to the car.

Marten walked up to LaPointe, standing beside her for about two minutes as she bled on the street.

Neither Jackson nor Marten provided care or called for help as LaPointe bled. A neighbour called 911. 

Marten drove the car up to LaPointe's body, Jackson retrieved the knife, and the three fled the scene. RCMP stopped the car moments later.

Jackson was sentenced in March to 10 years after pleading guilty to manslaughter. It was a sentence Blanchard told reporters the family wasn't happy with, saying she would have preferred the case go to trial.