Robyn Ermine is escorted from court on May 19, 2017. Photo by Chelsea Laskowski.
An appeal has been filed for a Muskoday woman’s murder conviction.
Just last month, 30-year-old Robyn Ermine was found guilty and sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 10 years in the Feb. 2015 killing Evan Tylan Bear.
Bear and Ermine had been a couple at the time, and he died after she stabbed him in the neck during a drunken fight. He died of blood loss in the Muskoday home they’d been living in at the time, while Ermine’s stepsister performed chest compressions and CPR on him.
During Ermine’s one-and-a-half week trial in Prince Albert, court heard her testify that Bear was choking her at the time. Her lawyer argued that Bear had a history of harming Ermine, and said during the night in question, she had been reaching for an item nearby to defend herself.
When the Crown prosecutor told Ermine she had swung in a stabbing motion when she caused the fatal blow to Bear, she vehemently disagreed. She said she was swinging with the intent of hitting him in the face, not with the intent of killing him.
In the end, the 12-person jury found Ermine guilty of the original charge of second-degree murder.
The emotional trial revealed tensions between Ermine’s family and Bear’s. At sentencing, Ermine’s mother had a verbal confrontation with Bear’s mother before the two walked away from each other.
However, it will be until the fall or winter before Ermine’s appeal is heard before the Court of Appeals.