A 29-year-old Owen Sound woman has been sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to being an accessory after the fact in the 2021 slaying of Kody Hunter.
Justice John Sproat handed down the sentence to Megan Hopkins in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice in Owen Sound on Wednesday.
Hunter, of Holland Centre, was murdered in a room at the Quality Inn in Owen Sound on May 16, 2021, according to an agreed statement of facts in Hopkins’ case. He was 22-years-old.
Hopkins is one of four people police initially charged with murder in the days and weeks following Hunter’s death. She eventually pleaded guilty to accessory after the fact.
She is the second person to admit to a lesser offence. Christie Currie, 39, of Chatsworth previously entered a guilty plea to conspiracy to commit assault and received a two-year prison sentence.
Two other men — 23-year-old Mackenzie Paterek and 21-year-old Robert Jackson — are charged with first-degree murder in Hunter’s death and will stand trial.
Sproat says in his sentencing reasons “the fact that Ms. Hopkins may admit certain facts for the purpose of her guilty plea does not in any way affect the fact that the two individuals charged with the killing are presumed innocent.”
Hopkins has just over two years and three months left to serve — 833 days — after factoring in her pre-trial custody.
The circumstances of Hopkins’ offence described in Sproat’s sentencing reasons says Hunter was dating Christie Currie’s daughter Sarah, and mom had formed the opinion he was being abusive.
“There is no evidence as to whether that was in fact true,” Sproat notes.
Christie ended up contacting Hopkins, her cousin, to see if she knew anyone who could “beat up” and give “a few bruises” to Hunter, Sproat explains.
Hopkins contacted a man who agreed he would “be prepared to assault” Hunter, and he ended up bringing another man with him. She drove both men to the hotel in Owen Sound and waited in her vehicle, and when they returned about a half hour later they were “freaking out” and told Hopkins that Hunter had been killed, Sproat says.
“One of the men directed Ms. Hopkins to drive out of town. She did so and dropped the two men off a few kilometres south of Owen Sound,” Justice Sproat says.
Sproat’s written reasons say while the fact Hunter was killed came as a surprise to Hopkins, the fact he was assaulted and harm came to him was not.
“The agreed statement of facts admits Ms. Hopkins was instrumental in the plan to assault Mr. Hunter,” Justice Sproat says.
Sproat’s written reasons for sentencing says the agreed statement of facts confirms Hopkins and Christie Currie exchanged Snapchat and text messages to each other the day after Hunter’s death “designed to create the false impression” the two women had no prior knowledge of the attack.
“The messages expressed feigned shock and surprise that Kody Hunter had been attacked,” Sproat notes in his written reasons.
The agreed statement of facts in her case say Hopkins attended the police station on May 20, 2021 — four days after Hunter’s death — and denied knowing anything about the murder, except for what Christie had texted her.
Hopkins also did a “thorough cleaning of the front passenger seat of her vehicle” and wiped her phone, “removing text records regarding Currie’s role in obtaining an entry card” for the room Hunter was staying in at the motel, according to the agreed facts.
The three years prison sentence for Hopkins fell in the range of the Crown’s submission. Defence counsel had asked for a conditional sentence.
The Crown filed 20 victim impact statements and Justice Sproat acknowledged reading them all carefully.
“It was obvious that a lot of time and attention went into preparing these statements,” Sproat says. “Mr. Hunter’s death has been devastating to his family and friends.”