Man charged with manslaughter in 2014 Saskatoon homicide

A 29-year-old man has been charged with manslaughter and robbery after a investigation into a homicide last November.

Saskatoon police have laid charges against Keith Clarence Napope after Johnathon Keenatch-Lafond, 35, was stabbed to death in his 20th Street apartment on Nov. 17, 2014.

Grace Lafond, Keenatch-Lafond’s sister, told CKOM News that her father had been getting ready for bed when black-clad men burst into the apartment he shared with his son. The men knocked her father from his wheelchair and stabbed her brother.

Lafond said her 96-year-old father hasn’t been the same since.

Keenatch-Lafond’s murder was Saskatoon’s seventh homicide of the year. Lafond said her brother and father used to live in an apartment on Avenue S but moved to get away from the crime and violence. Their new home was a multi-unit complex between Avenue N and Avenue O and 20th Street, near St. Paul’s Hospital.

Police said when they arrived to the home shortly after midnight on Nov. 17, Keenatch-Lafond was suffering from serious injuries. He was taken to hospital but died shortly after arriving.

An autopsy confirmed he died as a result of a stabbing. The case is still under investigation.

The man accused in his murder is scheduled to appear in court at 10 a.m. on Thursday.