Court heard Bear, 33, was eight months pregnant when Bluebell stabbed her to death in 2023. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter.
A red dress and a photo of Melissa Michelle Bear were placed on a chair in a Saskatoon provincial courtroom while her family and friends read victim impact statements to the man who killed her while he was under a court order to stay away from her.
Bear, a 33-year-old mother of five, was eight months pregnant at the time.
“Countless times I told you, stay away from her, and you didn’t listen to me. Now we’re here,” her sister said during Bluebell’s sentencing hearing last Thursday.
Family, friends and advocates admonished the justice system for failing to protect Indigenous women like Bear.
“Bluebell’s actions were not an isolated event. He has history of violence, and the lack of accountability for it directly led to this murder,” family friend and advocate Alyson Bear said.
Bluebell, 34, was charged with second-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter. He admits he stabbed Bear, but Crown prosecutor Tamara Denluck said he was in an “advanced state of intoxication” and didn’t form the specific intent necessary for murder.
Police were called to a home at St. Paul’s Place around 10:30 p.m. after a man who was staying with Bear saw her through a window, lying in a pool of blood. When officers entered the home, one child was standing at her feet and another was sleeping nearby, the agreed statement of facts outlined.
Court heard Bear had been slashed and stabbed at least seven times, and died in hospital from blood loss.
Witnesses who were at the home with Bear and Bluebell earlier that night told police that Bluebell was jealous when Bear and a friend brought a group of men back to the home. One man said he shared a bowl of meth with Bluebell to ease the tension.
A neighbour said he heard a man screaming at a woman outside before dragging her inside. He said he could hear the woman say, “Stop, don’t do that no more” 10 minutes before police arrived.
He said he went to Bear’s house because they were trying to “work things out.”
Denluck said when Bluebell was asked how it made him feel to know Bear was begging for him to stop, he said, “(I) feel ugly about that. Obviously, I’m not a good person. A lot of healing I got to be doing.”
Court heard Bluebell has prior domestic assault convictions against another woman in 2020 and against Bear in 2022.
“As an Indigenous man, your role is to protect and to honour our women and children; as a father, to protect your children, and as a partner, to embrace (Bear) with love and safety, but you failed, over and over,” one of Bear’s aunties wrote in her statement.
Judge Sanjeev Anand sentenced Bluebell to 15 years in prison after accepting a joint submission from Denluck and defence lawyer Chris Murphy. He has about 13 years left to serve after receiving an enhanced remand credit.
Denluck said the sentence reflects several aggravating factors: This was intimate partner violence against an Indigenous woman; Bluebell had a history of domestic violence and a no-contact order against Bear when he killed her while her young children were home.
Murphy said Bluebell was a happy Indigenous child who was close to his culture until he became addicted to alcohol after being the victim of domestic violence in his own home.
He’s used meth and alcohol for the last 20 years “to numb the pain that he himself feels,” Murphy told court.
“And it’s unfortunately changed not only his life forever, but the lives of everybody in this courtroom.”
Anand asked Bluebell how he plans to make amends for what he’s done.
“Just do my time, get it over and done with,” Bluebell replied from the prisoner’s box.
“That’s not enough,” Anand said.
“You took a life. The least you can do is when you re-enter the community, dedicate the rest of your life to making others’ lives better.”
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