Edmonton man handed 4-year manslaughter sentence in 2013 killing

Ivan Stamp's family waited more than a decade for answers about what happened to him.

Stamp was 31 when he was found dead in a wooded area behind a west Edmonton synagogue on June 5, 2013. He was severely injured, and his death was quickly ruled a homicide, but no one was arrested during the police investigation that followed.

It took eight years for police to reopen the case, after a witness reported that a man he knew as a local bottle picker named "Moose" said that he'd killed someone.

In an undercover "Mr. Big" police operation in 2022, police drew a confession out of Edward Robinson, which he repeated in a formal police interview, according to an agreed statement of facts in the case.

Robinson pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and on Wednesday, he was sentenced to four years in prison. With enhanced credit applied to the two years he's already spent in custody, he has about six months left to serve.

Stamp's sister, Chantell Stamp, said it's a difficult outcome for the family to process. She hopes to hold a ceremony for her brother and remember him for his humour.

"I remember the last time I saw my brother alive, I just had this feeling and I knew I needed to tell him I loved him. And I did," she said.

"It's been 12 years — it's time. Time to heal, time to move on."

In his sentencing decision, Court of King's Bench Justice Kent Teskey found Robinson's actions were "rooted in poverty, addictions and personal insecurity of both food and housing."

A Gladue report, which examines the circumstances and history of an Indigenous offender as part of the sentencing process, details Robinson's "fractured" childhood where he regularly witnessed alcohol abuse, and was couch surfing by the time he was a teenager.

Now 34, Robinson was 23, and living in a tent in Edmonton's river valley, when he killed Stamp.

He admitted that after he'd been drinking with a group that included Stamp, he got jealous because Stamp was talking to his then-girlfriend.

Court heard that Robinson led Stamp to a secluded area and knocked him unconscious, then dragged him further into the trees where he kicked and stomped on him, ultimately leaving him on the ground with numerous broken bones and fatal internal injuries.

Defence lawyer Rahul Nanda told the court during a hearing last month that Robinson has essentially lived on the streets, struggling with addictions, for his entire adult life. Nanda said in the undercover operation that led to a confession, police supplied Robinson with food and alcohol to gain his trust.