A B.C. man who stabbed and killed his girlfriend in 2021 appears to have had his parole eligibility lowered partly due to his race.
Everton Javaun Downey was sentenced for second-degree murder after admitting to killing Melissa Blimkie by stabbing her 15 times in a stairwell at the Metrotown Shopping Centre on Dec. 19, 2021.
However, during the trial, he maintained that he was guilty of manslaughter, not murder, because he lacked the specific intent to kill Blimkie.
Downey was convicted on Aug. 21, 2025, after a trial by a judge alone.
The sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison; however, the determination for parole eligibility can be between 10 and 25 years.
The Crown submitted that the period of ineligibility to apply for parole should be between 13 and 15 years.
The defence submitted that the period should be 12 years.
According to court documents, after Downey stabbed Blimkie in the stairwell and she lay dying, Downey made his way through Metrotown’s parking lot and the nearby neighbourhood, asking people he met to drive him away or let him into their homes and breaking into other homes.
“In the laundry and storage area of an apartment building he broke into, he hid the knife he had used to kill Ms. Blimkie,” the documents read.
“He also left his shoes and items of clothing, and dressed himself in boots and clothing that he took from that area. In the end, Mr. Downey stopped a person near Central Park who was walking with her grandmother and a dog, and asked her to call the police. When they arrived he told them that he was turning himself in.”
It was revealed that Downey has a “significant” criminal record that includes serious violent incidents, many involving weapons.
Most of his offences were in Ontario, where he grew up, and he was first convicted in 2007 at 18 years old for weapons offences and a breach. In 2010, he was convicted of armed robbery, forcible confinement, two firearms offences, and failing to comply offences, and received concurrent prison sentences.
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In 2013, he was convicted of three robbery offences and several related offences, including possession of a firearm or ammunition contrary to a prohibition order. Most of those offences resulted in seven-year concurrent prison sentences.
Downey was convicted in 2017 for possession of a weapon and sentenced to 60 days’ imprisonment concurrent to the sentences he was then serving.
His first offence in B.C. was Blimkie’s murder; however, he also committed a bank robbery on Dec. 20, 2021, immediately after he was released on bail when he turned himself in to police for his girlfriend’s death.
He pleaded guilty to the robbery and on Sept. 21, 2023, was sentenced to four years’ imprisonment, which was then reduced by 934 days’ credit for pre-sentencing custody.
When determining parole eligibility, the judge also took into account the Impact of Race and Culture Assessment (IRCA).
That aims to “help the Court understand the systemic, historical, and social factors shaping the experiences of Black and other racialized individuals involved in the justice system, and those of Mr. Downey in particular,” the documents read.
“Mr. Downey is currently 35 years old, and was 31 at the time of the offence. He is a Black man of African Nova Scotian, African American, and Jamaican ancestry. He grew up in Toronto in predominantly Black and racially diverse neighbourhoods and attended racially diverse schools, and felt that he did not experience overt racism.”
However, that changed when Downey moved to B.C. in 2016, according to the documents.
“He found a much smaller Black population, and the cultural norms among Black communities felt unfamiliar to him, and contributed to feelings of disconnection and isolation,” the documents read.
“He also experienced racism in ways he had not previously encountered, both in the community and in the institutional setting.”
Downey’s mother, who was consulted for the IRCA said that her son had 30 home changes between the ages of one and 10 and was also exposed to violence in the home and his father was a victim of violence outside the home.
“Mr. Downey’s background, as described in the IRCA, included early exposure to violence, chronic instability, poverty, systemic anti-Black racism, and untreated mental health symptoms, such as hypervigilance, that may be trauma-related,” the documents state.
“The defence notes, in addition, that the IRCA situates Mr. Downey’s conduct within a life history marked by early exposure to violence, chronic instability, poverty, systemic anti-Black racism, and untreated trauma-related symptoms such as hypervigilance, factors relevant to Mr. Downey’s moral blameworthiness.”
Downey did apologize to Blimkie’s family.
“The aggravating effect of his criminal record is offset in part by the mitigating circumstances of his background, as detailed in the IRCA,” the documents state.
The judge ruled that the appropriate period of ineligibility to apply for parole is 12 years.
Angela Marie MacDougall with Battered Women’s Support Services, told Global News that IRCAs can have a role in the criminal legal system.
“They help courts understand how systemic racism, poverty, and structural inequality shape people’s lives and their interactions with the justice system,” she said in a statement.
“That work is important and necessary.
“At the same time, the use of an IRCA in a case involving the killing of an intimate partner raises serious concerns. When a woman is killed by a partner, the central issue must remain the lethal violence committed against her.
“The fact that this man was released after the killing and went on to commit a bank robbery the very next day is a troubling indication of how little urgency the Canadian justice system routinely places on violence against women.”
MacDougall said that for decades, advocates have warned that intimate partner violence is one of the most preventable forms of lethal violence.
“When the system treats these cases as routine rather than as the social and public safety emergency they represent, women and girls pay the price,” she added.
