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Warning: This story contains graphic details of torture and murder.
The second of two men responsible for a gruesome killing in Saskatoon has now pleaded guilty.
Edin Dion Vrazalica’s trial for first-degree murder was scheduled to begin on Monday morning and run for three weeks.
Instead, it ended quickly with a guilty plea from Vrazalica, 37, to the lesser offence of manslaughter. He also pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to human remains.
Vrazalica admitted his role in the death of Lee Perkins, a 25-year-old man from Calgary whose body was found by police in a Saskatoon home on Feb. 3, 2024.
A second accused, Dillon Singler, previously pleaded guilty to manslaughter. The Crown is applying to have Singler declared a dangerous offender, with the hearing scheduled for January.
Vrazalica’s sentencing hearing is set for Tuesday. The Crown is expected to read out the detailed agreed statement of facts about what happened.
Lee Perkins’s family shared their grief about his death at the sentencing hearing for a co-accused in the case earlier this year. On the back of their shirts, it says, ‘Justice for Lee.’ (Hannah Spray/CBC)
‘Not an easy day’
“It’s not an easy day when the Crown has to come into court and accept a plea to manslaughter, when the original charge is first-degree murder,” Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss told reporters outside court on Monday.
“Our thoughts are with the Perkins family today.”
He said that some of the factors in accepting the plea included some witnesses being dead and others having, “changed some of their potential evidence.”
Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss speaks to reporters outside Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench on Monday. (Chanss Lagaden/CBC)
Vrazalica’s lawyer, Chris Murphy, said there would have been “triable issues” for the Crown to prove first-degree murder beyond a reasonable doubt.
He said Vrazalica has always been willing to plead guilty to manslaughter, and is “deeply, deeply remorseful” for the pain he caused Perkins’s family.
“He was in the throes of a significant drug addiction and was at the darkest point of his life when this happened, which is not an excuse for anything that he did, but the reality of it is, that he did things that he would not have done otherwise,” Murphy said outside court.
Missing drugs
In court, Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss shared a brief summary so that Justice Richard Danyliuk would have enough information to accept Vrazalica’s guilty plea.
Bliss said that on Feb. 1, 2024, Vrazalica returned to a home in Saskatoon and “was angry with Mr. Perkins about some drugs that had gone missing.” Vrazalica was also angry about discovering some pills in his girlfriend’s purse that he believed Perkins had given to her.
“Numerous video recordings captured Mr. Vrazalica cutting off the fingers of Mr. Perkins,” Bliss said.
Perkins died from a deep wound to his throat and the associated blood loss.
“Mr. Vrazalica accepts that he was one of the two people legally responsible for the confinement, torture and ultimate death of Mr. Perkins,” Bliss said.
Police tape surrounded the house where police found the body of Lee Perkins. (Liam O’Connor/CBC)
Vrazalica also admitted putting Perkins’s body into a large, 45-gallon plastic tote. Bliss paused for a moment while describing it, then said that essentially, the body was “crammed” into the tote.
Vrazalica’s then-girlfriend, Chantal McLaren, previously pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact by buying the supplies to clean the scene of the homicide. At her sentencing hearing, court heard she was a victim of intimate partner violence at the hands of Vrazalica. A sentencing decision in that case is scheduled for next month.
The missing drugs that Vrazalica was angry about have also been the focus of separate court proceedings, where court heard that on Feb. 1, 2024, police responded to a 911 call from the home.
They didn’t find an emergency, but found suspicious-looking brown bottles filled with some kind of liquid, which turned out to be bromazolam, a type of benzodiazepine. They also found Perkins sleeping on a couch.
Officers seized the drugs but did not charge or arrest Perkins.
Vrazalica later pleaded guilty to possessing the drugs for the purpose of trafficking, and was sentenced to two years in prison.
McLaren was also charged with trafficking. She pleaded not guilty, but was convicted by a jury last month. Sentencing arguments on that offence are scheduled for March 2027.
