A woman who went into a rage after being insulted about her sexual identity and beat a man to death with a baseball bat has been found not guilty of murder but guilty of manslaughter.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman concluded that Madison Reid, who had a sex change operation years earlier, was particularly sensitive to insults and had been called a "faggot" by Bruce Archambault just prior to a violent struggle that led to his death in his remote cabin north of Prince George in July 2011.
The judge rejected Reid's claims that she was acting in self-defence when she struck Archambault, 56, dozens of times with the aluminum bat, including six fatal blows to the head, but concluded that she was provoked by the insults and attacked the victim in a heated passion.
"I'm satisfied that the motive for what happened was that she lost control of herself," said the judge in a ruling released Thursday in Vancouver.
Reid, 42 years old at the time, went into a rage and the loss of control caused her to club Archambault between 33 and 54 times with the bat, striking him even after he had been immobilized and fatally wounded, added the judge.
The Crown had failed to disprove that provocation was involved in the attack, and the necessary intent to prove a charge of second-degree murder was lacking, resulting in Reid being found guilty of the lesser and included offence of manslaughter.
There were gasps in the courtroom from a number of family and friends of the victim, and one woman fled the courtroom.
Court heard that Reid was born a hermaphrodite, had had the sex change operation in 2001 and two years prior to the slaying, she'd been brutally assaulted by someone wielding a chair, losing the sight in one eye.
The slaying happened after Reid had hitchhiked to McLeod Lake, about 140 kilometres north of Prince George, and had met Archambault near a private party at the lake.
Archambault told several people that he was taking Reid back to his cabin to fix her broken fishing rod, prompting one guest to comment that he might "get lucky."
Reid and Archambault partied at his cabin later that evening, but got into a violent altercation.
The judge concluded that the victim, after learning about Reid's background, had insulted her, saying she didn't deserve to live and was not a real woman.
Archambault punched Reid in the face and brought out his bat, but Reid, a large woman, quickly gained the upper hand and grabbed the bat from him, striking him repeatedly.
After the incident, Reid returned on foot to the lake's campground and called police, saying she had been attacked by a man, believed she was going to die and had acted in self-defence.
Much of the judge's ruling dealt with the accused's claims that she felt her life was in danger and was acting in self-defence.
The judge found that she did not have a reasonable belief that she might be killed or suffer grievous bodily harm, and rejected the self-defence arguments.
The accused appeared to have little reaction to the verdict.
An autopsy revealed that Archambault had been struck six times behind the head, any one of those blows capable of killing him, and numerous times on other parts of his body. He also suffered 10 broken ribs. Reid suffered only minor injuries in the attack.
Sentencing has been scheduled for May 14.
