Letter from jail: Accused murderer Xavier Jimmy says Gabriel Wapass came at him with an axe

Within an hour, Saskatoon's Xavier Jimmy says he went from playing Xbox in his home to defending himself and his dog in his backyard — with deadly results. 

Jimmy, 21, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Gabriel Wapass, 47.  

Their fatal confrontation happened early in the morning on June 30, Jimmy says. After playing video games for about an hour, Jimmy went to his backyard to let his dog pee when he encountered Wapass.

In two handwritten letters — sent after CBC News wrote to him in jail — Jimmy has provided his account of what happened over the next 15 minutes. 

"I feel like people who know me are looking down on me and deserve to know why," Jimmy said of Wapass' death.

Jimmy has a legal aid lawyer and is on remand at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre, awaiting the next stage of his legal process. 

He has not yet had a preliminary hearing, and nothing he wrote in his letter has been tested in court. 

"I thought about if I should write back or not and thought, 'What could go wrong, eh? I'm already at my worst point in life that I will ever be.'"

Dog threatened with screwdriver, Jimmy says

Jimmy had drunk one beer and was cracking open a second one when he and his dog went outside some time after 3 a.m., he said. 

The dog was an approximately eight-month-old German Shepherd, standing just above Jimmy's knees. (He's 6'1.) 

The dog got "excited" while running up to a man and a woman to greet them, Jimmy said. 

"She is nice like that," Jimmy said of his dog, although "she might seem scary," he later added when asked for more detail, "especially if you're messing around in her yard."

The woman got scared and called out for a second man whom Jimmy assumed was the woman's boyfriend: Gabriel Wapass. 

"Then he [Wapass] chased my dog for a few steps with a screwdriver in his hand," Jimmy said. 

'A crazy fight'

Jimmy said Wapass was trying to break into a rear suite in Jimmy's building, located close to St. Paul's Hospital on 20th Street W.

"I said, 'Get the f**k out of my yard.' I told them to leave about four times. Then Gabriel's [male] friend told me, 'Get that dog out of here.' Then I told him, 'F**k you. My dog lives here. You get out of here.'"

Gabriel's male friend had an axe in his hand — "more like a tomahawk type of axe" — plus a stick stuffed inside his pants, Jimmy said.  

Jimmy continued to argue with the friend who, according to Jimmy, said, "I'll f**king gut you right here." Jimmy then took his dog inside, before going back outside himself. 

"I don't know," Jimmy replied when asked why he returned. "I was mad. If I knew it was gonna break out into a crazy fight, I wouldn't have." 

Jimmy again shouted at the group to leave and saw Wapass now had the axe. 

"Gabriel's friend said, 'Hit him if he wants to act tough.' Then Gabriel came at me and swung but [he] must have been drunk or something because he tripped and fell [to the ground] and dropped the axe."

Jimmy stood on the axe and kicked Wapass a few times. Gabriel's friends left, Jimmy said.

Wapass kept trying to grab the axe from under Jimmy's feet until Jimmy yanked it away and struck Wapass several times, Jimmy said. 

"I hit him with the butt end…. I might have hit him with the sharp end."

Jimmy went back inside while Wapass left out the back gate, Jimmy said. 

"Then it was all done."

2nd-degree murder vs. manslaughter

Saskatoon police got a 911 call at around 4 a.m. about the injured Wapass, according to a police release at the time.  Officers and medics tried to save him, but he was dead: one of three homicide victims within a one-week span in the city's Pleasant Hill area. 

Jimmy was arrested by 5 p.m. and charged with second-degree murder the next day.

• 21-year-old man charged with murder in Saskatoon's 6th homicide of 2019

• What's the difference between 1st-degree murder, 2nd-degree murder and manslaughter?

One key difference between first-degree murder and second-degree murder is that while first-degree is both planned and deliberate, second-degrees is defined as a deliberate killing that occurs without premeditation. 

Manslaughter is a homicide committed without intent.

'Sorry to all the people I disappointed'

Jimmy said didn't know Wapass, a father of four children. 

"He was a good father, husband, a good provider," Wapass' wife Tanya told CBC News two days after his death. "He was always there, willing to help out when needed. And if anybody needed anything, he was always there to give that lending and helping hand."

Reached on Sunday, Tanya Wapass declined to comment on Jimmy's account. 

Jimmy said the woman who was with Wapass that morning tried to disarm the situation.

"Gabriel's lady friend didn't do anything but get scared of my dog. She was even trying to get them to leave, saying, 'Let's go.' But they didn't listen."

CBC News has not been able to confirm whether Tanya Wapass was with her husband that morning.  

• Gabriel Wapass, Saskatoon's 7th homicide victim remembered as loving, kind father

At his first Saskatoon court appearance on July 3, Jimmy's gaze appeared to search the public gallery for a familiar face.

The room was full of Wapass family members and supporters. 

"I'm sorry to all the people I disappointed," Jimmy wrote — "especially my grandma, who raised me to be better than this."