By Alex McCuaig

Murder trial begins

Accused found to have killed Hat woman, trial to determine criminal responsibility

Oct 18, 2019 | 12:42 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – A man has been found to have killed a Medicine Hat woman in November 2016 but whether he was criminally responsible will be determined during the remainder of his second-degree murder trial which opened on Friday.

The court heard that Noah Bentley repeatedly confessed to police in the hours following Brenda Woloski’s homicide on Nov. 12, 2016.

“I’m guilty. I killed a woman. I don’t deserve to be on the streets,” Bentley told police following his arrest, according to an agreed statement of facts entered into evidence on Friday at Medicine Hat Court of Queen’s Bench.

A section from the Agreed Statement of Facts in the Noah Bentley case presented in Medicine Hat Court of Queen’s Bench on October 18, 2019.

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The court heard Bentley had left his Elm Street home around 11 a.m. following an argument with his girlfriend about dirty dishes. From there, he proceeded to buy alcohol at a downtown liquor store, drank it at a nearby park and then continued to a Carry Drive liquor store where he bought more alcohol.

Later in the day, he made his way to the Assiniboia Inn where he meet Brenda Woloski with the pair making their way to the woman’s home on the corner of Third Street and Maple Avenue.

Bentley was found by city police on the street covered with blood and without a shirt.

The court heard Woloski suffered multiple injuries including 13 stab wounds, blunt force trauma and injuries consistent with strangulation.

Two days following the homicide, Bentley penned an apology letter while in custody.

“Nothing I can do or time I can serve will bring her back. I permanently removed her from this world,” the letter reads.

A copy of a letter written by Noah Bentley in police custody, two days following the death of Brenda Woloski

Court adjourned on Friday with the trial expected to hear evidence next week focused on whether Bentley was criminal responsible for the murder or suffered from a mental disorder which would render him incapable of knowing right from wrong.

(This is a corrected version of the story. The previous version quoted Bentley as stating, “I don’t belong on the streets,” rather than, “I don’t deserve to be on the streets.”)