15 years for fiery death

Photo: The Canadian Press

Melissa Stevenson, centre, best friend of victim Jeanenne Fontaine.

A man convicted in the high-profile shooting death of a Winnipeg woman inside a home that was then set on fire has been sentenced to 15 years behind bars.

A jury on Saturday found Christopher Brass guilty of manslaughter in the March 2017 death of Jeanenne Fontaine, who was 29.

Fontaine's best friend Melissa Stevenson said during the sentencing that the young mother of three was like a butterfly — beautiful, small and strong.

Fontaine was shot and her home was set on fire in March 2017 when three men came to her house to collect on a drug debt her boyfriend owed.

Fontaine was the cousin of Tina Fontaine, a teenager whose body was found three years earlier in the Red River, and whose death fuelled calls for a national inquiry into missing and murdered Indigenous women.

Stevenson says her friend was in tremendous pain after her cousin's death and it affected her battle with addiction

Another man, Jason Meilleur, was also convicted of manslaughter and is to be sentenced at a later date.

The third man, Malcolm Mitchell, pleaded guilty to the shooting last month and was sentenced to life in prison for second-degree murder.