Latest news with #KoreeDockstater
Toronto Sun
17 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
Victim's kin fume as woman found guilty of manslaughter, not murder
Jonathan Juha Published Jul 04, 2025 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read Koree Dockstater walks out of the London courthouse on Friday, July 4, 2025, after being convicted of manslaughter. Photo by Mike Hensen / The London Free Press A woman accused of fatally stabbing her friend was found not guilty of second-degree murder on Friday but was convicted of the lesser charge of manslaughter. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. 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Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account It was a verdict – coupled with the fact that Koree Dockstater was released on bail to await her sentencing – that left relatives of the victim fuming, with one yelling expletives at Dockstater before leaving the courtroom. Police escorted Dockstater and her relatives out of the London courthouse. Relatives of the victim, 27-year-old Shaniqua Henry, declined comment. The guilty verdict was handed down by Superior Court Justice Marc Garson, who detailed a complex case. 'Evidence is never complete and is often ambiguous,' Garson said. 'Those words ring true in many ways in this case.' At the heart of the case was determining what happened to Henry in the early hours of July 19, 2022, when her body was found in a puddle outside the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation house of Mathew Riley, one of three men who partied that night with both the victim and the accused. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Though forensic evidence showed Henry died of a stab wound to the heart, the lawyer for Dockstater, who pleaded not guilty to the second-degree murder charge, argued no one saw his client stab Henry, leaving open the possibility someone else was responsible, even though some of Henry's blood was found inside Dockstater's vehicle. Throughout the trial, Garson heard testimony and saw security videos from various locations supporting some of the accounts about the five people driving around the community during a drug- and alcohol-filled night before they returned to Riley's Jubilee Road home . By then, Dockstater and Henry were arguing. Two of the men went into the house, but Riley went back outside to break up a fight between the women. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Riley testified he and Dockstater then went for a 'cool-off' drive while Henry walked toward a trailer on the property. When they returned, Riley said he went into the house while Henry got into the car with Dockstater. Defence lawyer Geoff Snow offered three alternative theories to the case presented by assistant Crown attorneys Jeremy Carnegie and Roger Dietrich, who argued Dockstater stabbed Henry in her car after she and Riley had returned. Shaniqua Henry. Snow, who questioned the way police handled evidence at the scene and described Riley as an unreliable witness, argued Henry could have been killed by Riley before the cool-down cruise, which court heard lasted at least 45 minutes; or that Henry could have been in the car during the drive and could have instead been stabbed by Riley from the back seat of the vehicle; or that Henry was killed by someone else while at Riley's property and her DNA and blood were transferred to Dockstater's vehicle by Riley when he sat in the car. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Put simply, the defence says nothing can be proved and nothing can be ruled out,' Garson said. But the judge rejected all three theories. He said the fact the two other men – Gilbert Kechego and Robert John – didn't notice Henry's body until after Riley had returned from the drive 'even though it was daylight from about 5:30 a.m. onward, lends credence to my finding that (Henry) was not stabbed before the cool-down cruise.' Garson also dismissed the possibility Henry was in the vehicle with Riley and Dockstater after 'carefully' reviewing security footage showing the car at the Munsee Delaware Community Centre. Finally, he said the reaction of the three men, who called 911 and tried to revive Henry, 'also speaks clearly to their intentions as soon as they realized their friend was in distress.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Similarly, it makes no sense that (Riley) would have accidentally or intentionally stabbed (Henry) during his efforts to break up this altercation, given his frantic and hysterical response to her lifeless body in the puddle hours later,' Garson said. Instead, Garson focused on the roughly eight minutes between the time video surveillance shows the car returning to the property after the cool-off drive and when it left again. During that time, Dockstater and Henry were alone because Riley said he went inside. Garson said testimony that Dockstater left the property 'in a hurry' and refused to return despite several texts from Riley, combined with the discovery of Henry's blood in Dockstater's car and on her sweatshirt, created a 'clear picture' of what happened. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'That clear picture is one of (Dockstater) quickly leaving and not returning because she had just stabbed (Henry) and was now aware that she lay unconscious in a puddle,' Garson said. 'The evidence of (Riley's) many lies, many blackouts and wildly inaccurate timelines and time estimates do not raise a reasonable doubt that (Dockstater) inflicted the fatal stab wound.' Despite reaching that conclusion, Garson said he couldn't determine without reasonable doubt whether Dockstater meant to kill Henry during the altercation he believed took place inside the vehicle. 'I accordingly find her not guilty of second-degree murder, but guilty of manslaughter,' Garson said, prompting an audible gasp from the audience in the courtroom while Dockstater shook her head. The case returns to court in October to set a sentencing date. jjuha@ Read More
CTV News
21 hours ago
- CTV News
Woman charged with murder found guilty of manslaughter in stabbing death of friend
Even though she was found guilty in the stabbing death of her friend, Koree Dockstater, 34, left the London Courthouse and remains free on bail. She and her family were escorted out of the building by London police officers after an angry outburst in Courtroom 20 from the family of the stabbing victim once the verdict was handed down. Initially charged with second degree murder in the death Shaniqua Henry, Justice Marc Garson found Dockstater guilty of the lesser charge of manslaughter saying, 'Koree stabbed Shaniqua intentionally and unlawfully. However, I have a reasonable doubt that she did so with the required mental element for murder.' During her trial in March, the court heard that Dockstater and the 27-year-old Henry had been hanging out, driving around on the Chippewas of the Thames territory in July of 2022. They had been consuming alcohol and drugs. The court heard they weren't getting along due to an argument over money. A short while later, Henry's body would be found with a fatal stab wound to the chest along a laneway off of Jubilee Road, south of London. Her blood would be found in Dockstater's car. Henry's grandmother, Shirley, who now takes care of Shaniqua's 8-year-old daughter was emotional in and outside the courthouse. 'I feel awful, I've been crying for 365 days for the last four years and I miss her,' she said. Shirley Henry added, 'All her family misses her and it's just terrible that she (Dockstater) don't show any remorse.' The matter has now been put over to Assignment Court on October 21st when a sentencing hearing date is expected to be selected.
