A New Brunswick woman was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in prison in connection with the death of 18-year-old Baylee Wylie of Moncton, N.B., who was stabbed about 200 times in 2015.
Marissa Shephard was sentenced on a charge of manslaughter, and she also received a three-year sentence for arson, to be served concurrently.
She pleaded guilty to the charges in June after being in custody for more than five years.
Shephard was convicted in 2018 of killing Wylie, who was stabbed about 200 times and found in Shephard’s burnt-out townhouse on Dec. 17, 2015, but the conviction was overturned on appeal.
A new trial was set to begin this month but she pleaded guilty to the lesser charge.
Gilles Lemieux, Shephard’s lawyer, said in a statement Thursday his client is relieved the court proceedings are over.
Shephard is the third person sentenced in connection with Wylie’s killing.
Devin Morningstar was found guilty of first-degree murder in 2016, while Tyler Noel pleaded guilty in May 2017 to second-degree murder and arson with disregard for human life. Both received life sentences.
According to court documents, Wylie, Shephard, and the two other young men gathered at her home for “some drug-fuelled excitement,” which ended tragically with Wylie being tied to a chair, beaten and stabbed repeatedly with a variety of weapons.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2021.