By Ashley Wiebe & Charles Lefebvre

BREAKING: Holmes pleads guilty to manslaughter on first day of trial

Apr 9, 2018 | 10:31 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — A Medicine Hat woman charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of her husband has pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.

Barbara Holmes, 53, pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter on the first day of a scheduled 10-day trial Monday morning in the Medicine Hat Court of Queen’s Bench.

Court heard details about what led up to the night John Holmes was stabbed multiple times in their family home.

The crown and defence presented an Admission of Facts to the judge.

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It was revealed the couple had been having marital problems.

A big strain had been caused by John’s “one-time sexual liaison” with Barbara’s friend, according to the Admission of Facts.

John, who worked in the oilfield, was also having trouble finding stable work and had started drinking heavily.

On the evening of June 17, 2016 the couple were drinking at home.

There was an argument which quickly escalated.

Barbara became enraged and stabbed John 17 times with a knife from the kitchen.

According to the court document, “the assault happened quickly and can only be described as a frenzy.”

Around 1:00 am, Barbara sent a Facebook message to her daughter, Natasha, which read “Tash I just killed dad.”

Natasha, who lived next door, came right over and saw John lying on his side on the floor in a pool of blood.

Barbara said “Tash, help me hide the body, I don’t want to go to jail. Do you trust me?”

It was at that point when Natasha refused and called 911.

“There’s only one thing different between a manslaughter and a murder and that’s intent to kill and in a case like this, for example, we don’t have any witnesses about what happened because our victim is deceased and the only other person who was there was the accused person,” said crown prosecutor Ramona Robins.

Crown prosecutor Ramona Robins spoke with CHAT Television immediately following the decision.

Barbara agrees that she assaulted John Holmes, without legal justification, causing his death.

“Mrs. Holmes took responsibility for the death of her husband,” Robins added. “She was willing to say she was the one that killed him and how she killed him and agreed that she had killed him and that level of responsibility and accountability was one of the things the crown considered in the ultimate resolution of the case.”

Both the crown and defence are asking for a sentence of between five and eight years.

A pre-sentencing report and a Gladue report, looking into Holmes’ background, have been ordered.

Holmes is expected to be sentenced on June 15th.