Sister of domestic murder victim details destruction of family in wake of killing
CBC
The death and destruction in the Crosschild family didn't stop at the domestic murder of Autumn, a 25-year-old Indigenous woman killed by Brandon Yellowfly, the man she once wanted to marry.
Crosschild's older sister Nikki-Lee Heavyrunner delivered a powerful victim impact statement in Calgary's Indigenous courtroom Tuesday.
She told Justice Allison Kuntz that in the year after her sister was killed, she also planned funerals for her mother and brother — blaming both of those deaths on the toll of their grief.
"I watched everything fall like dominos around us," said Heavyrunner.
"I'm forever in a nightmare."
Kuntz is presiding over a sentencing hearing for Yellowfly, who pleaded guilty in September to second-degree murder in the 2022 beating death of Autumn.
Yellowfly faces a life sentence for his murder conviction. Prosecutor Aleksandra Simic proposed a 16- to 18-year parole ineligibility period, while defence lawyers James Wyman and Jillian Williamson asked the judge to consider a 13-year term.
The hearing began with a smudging ceremony, a Blackfoot prayer and a jingle dance.
In her sentencing submissions, Simic told the judge that Yellowfly showed a "despicable indifference to [Crosschild's] suffering" and called the killing a "vicious and brutal attack on a young and vulnerable Indigenous woman."
Yellowfly admitted to beating Crosschild as she tried to escape his abuse.
His assaults, argued Simic, were aimed at extinguishing Crosschild's desire to leave an abusive relationship
In the week before she died, Crosschild, her mother and her sister each tried to get her help to safely leave Yellowfly.
Crosschild told her sister she wanted to break up with Yellowfly but was afraid he would kill her.
On June 10, Crosschild's mother called police asking for a welfare check on her daughter. When police met with Crosschild at a gas station, Yellowfly stood nearby. She told police she was OK and then left with the man who would go on to kill her.
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