Kirk Keeping looks to the Supreme Court gallery while getting his handcuffs removed by a sheriff's officer. (Troy Turner/CBC) Kirk Keeping will be staying behind bars for a very long time — a second-degree murder conviction ensures that — but just how long he'll stay incarcerated before being eligible for parole is what Justice Glen Noel must now decide. Noel presided over the sentencing hearing for the St.
Jacques-Coombs Cove man in Grand Falls-Windsor Supreme Court on Thursday. It was long day of arguments from both defence and crown attorneys in a hot and humid courtroom, made more intense by emotional submissions through victim impact statements. Keeping killed Chantal John with a knife in January 2019.
The murder was the first for the tiny Miawpukek First Nation in Conne River, on the province's south coast. John, who was once in a relationship with Keeping, was 28 years old. Chantal John was 28 years old when she was murdered by her ex-boyfriend, Kirk Keeping.
Her family and friends say her loss is immeasurable. (Facebook) Keeping, now 40, was originally charged with first-degree murder and attempted murder, but pleaded guilty to lesser charges of second-degree murder and aggravated assault earlier this year. With trial set to begin, Kirk Keeping pleads guilty to 2019 murder of Chantel John Victim impact statements read out in court brought many in the gallery of 15 or so to tears.
"Chantal John was truly a child of the community," wrote the Miawpukek First Nation l.