Conviction In 2017 Manslaughter Death

A 43-year-old man who already has a criminal record has been convicted of manslaughter in connection to a 2017 death. Judge Danial Newton found 43-year-old Garnet Loon guilty Monday morning in court. In 2019, his co-accused and daughter Kailee Loon received one day in jail deemed served for each of the two counts of assault she faced in relation to the victims’ deaths.

Loon will find out his fate and be sentenced on January 29th. The 43-year-old stood up in court and addressed the judge saying, “I want to apologize to the victim’s family. I caused so much pain and I’m sorry.”

Court heard in the summer of 2017, Loon was at a drinking party on Carl Avenue when he got into a fight with the victim Robert Gray. On June 27th, the 50-year-old Gray, Loon, Kailee Loon and 22-year-old Kory-Lee Campbell were drinking at the Carl Avenue home.

A fight broke out between the then 19-year-old Loon and her step-sister Campbell. The group continued to drink following the fight and another dispute broke out between the two men. Court heard that “Loon hit Gray in the face which caused him to fall to the ground, he appeared to be unconscious. A skateboard which was beside the couch was used to hit Gray a number of times and that the victim stopped moving.”

Kailee Loon told police that her father asked her to get a knife from the kitchen, but because she couldn’t find one she came back with a 2 pronged metal fork. She told police, she saw her father making a thrusting motion with the fork towards the body of Gray.

In the early morning hours of June 28th, Kailee Loon grabbed the rest of the beer from the fridge and left out a window with her father. Security footage from a neighbouring location shows the two climb out of a window. Through a police investigation, a witness said Loon told him “I think I may have killed him, but I’m not too sure.” He went on to say that “they couldn’t get out of the door, so they had to climb out of the window.”

Garnet and Kailee Loon later left Thunder Bay and went to Sioux Lookout and were later arrested by police on July 2nd. Gray and Campbell’s bodies were found in the Carl Avenue home on July 1st after many people said they hadn’t heard from them since July 27th.

Court heard that based on evidence, Gray was still alive when the Loons’ left the home. A post-mortem revealed Gray was alive for hours and that his body that was originally in the living room when the fight broke out, was later found at the stairwell of the house. Campbell was found dead in the living room, lying on her back with her arm across her face, with blood and hair in her hand.

Defence lawyer Danny Gunn told the judge that Garnet Loon’s life has been an absolute struggle and that Loon had killed his friend and that it hurts because it was his closest friend. Gunn then went on to detail that both the victim and the accused had significant criminal records with multiple convictions for violence and were members of the Native Syndicate Street Gang.

Gray’s cousin, the former chief of the Mishkeegogamang First Nation, Connie Gray McKay shared how his death has impacted her. Gray McKay cried on the stand when explaining what her cousin meant to her and said “the court talks about a Robert that I didn’t know, talks about his record, but every time I saw him we would hug. There was another side of Robert, that the court isn’t talking about. ”

Gray McKay also addressed Loon saying she forgave him and that she prays that he can seek forgiveness from himself, from others and the Creator because his forgiveness is divine and true. Loon could be seen with his head hung down and his lawyer handed him a tissue.