Woman who pled guilty to strangling female victim to be sentenced in January

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on November 29, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A woman who wrapped a rope around the neck of a friend and strangled her to death, may be sentenced for second-degree murder when she returns to court in January.

Melissa Martens-Lagasse, 27, is scheduled to have a sentencing hearing Jan. 31 in Lethbridge Court of King’s Bench. The matter was addressed Monday in a Lethbridge courtroom, where Lagasse appeared briefly by CCTV from the Lethbridge Correctional Centre.

The Crown and defence were instructed to provide their written briefs to Justice Vaughan Hartigan before the sentencing hearing, when Hartigan may sentence Martens-Lagasse or adjourn the matter to allow him more time to make his decision. The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison, and the sentencing hearing will determine her eligibility for parole, which cannot occur for at least 10 years after she is sentenced.

Between now and January the lawyers and judge will review a Gladue Report, which considers an Indigenous person’s unique and often tragic circumstances and experiences, to help determine a fit and fair sentence.

The circumstances include the challenges of colonization the offender, family, and community faced and resisted as Indigenous people, and continue to affect them today. The Gladue factors include racism, loss of language, removal from land, residential schools, and foster care.

Martens-Lagasse pleaded not guilty last April to a charge of first-degree murder and elected to be tried by a Court of King’s Bench judge and jury. Five months later, however, she pleaded guilty to second-degree murder.

Reading from an agreed statement of facts, Crown Prosecutor Kristi Adams said Martens-Lagasse and Megan Eekma were working in Kelowna and decided to return to Alberta, where they both previously lived.

When they arrived in Fort Macleod on the morning of Nov. 18, 2021, they had run out of gas, and Martens-Lagasse called her mother and said they were on their way to Medicine Hat but had car trouble. Her mother said Eekma could not stay at her house, but she agreed to drive to Fort Macleod and pick up her daughter.

While the two women waited at the gas station in Fort Macleod, Eekma fell asleep and Martens-Lagasse climbed in the back seat of the white Chrysler Neon, put a rope around Eekma’s neck and pulled until she was dead. She then piled a bunch of their belongings from the car on top of the body and waited for her mother.

When her mother and her boyfriend arrived in Fort Macleod and filled Martens-Lagasse’s car with gas, she drove west and dumped Eekma’s body on the side of the road 27 kilometres southeast of Pincher Creek. She threw the rope she had used to strangle Eekma out the window while driving away and headed to Medicine Hat.

The following day, while at her mother’s home in Medicine Hat, Martens-Lagasse admitted killing Eekma.

At about 8 a.m. that same day, a woman was driving on Highway 505 southeast of Pincher Creek and stopped at an intersection. She noticed Eekma’s body lying in a ditch and called 911.

On the morning of Nov. 23 Martens-Lagasse’s mother called 911 in Medicine Hat and told police her daughter had admitted killing Eekma. Police also learned Martens-Lagasse had outstanding warrants for her arrest out of Ponoka and Calgary, and they arrested her on the warrants and later for the murder of Eekma, as well as for interfering with a dead body.

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