Woman gets nearly year in jail for connection to attempted murder

Jason G. Antonio - For the MJ Independent

 A Moose Jaw woman will spend nearly a year in jail for her role in an attempted murder that occurred last July near a motel on the North Service Road.

 Meagan Windover, 30, appeared by video in Moose Jaw Provincial Court on March 25, where Judge David Chow sentenced her to 20 months in a provincial jail, followed by 24 months of probation with conditions.

 She must also provide a DNA sample, is prohibited from possessing firearms for 10 years and, among other things, stay away from the victim.

 However, because she had spent 252 days in custody after her arrest, Judge Chow credited her with 378 enhanced days, leaving her with 222 days to serve. He also tacked on another 60 days for other crimes to which she pleaded guilty, giving her a total jail time of 282 days.

 The Crown had asked for three years in a federal jail, while the defence had asked for time served and two years of probation.

Windover — whom the police initially charged with attempted murder — pleaded guilty in early March to acting as an accessory after the fact to the commission of an indictable offence, specifically, the attempted murder of a man on July 14, 2025, in the parking lot of the Moose Jaw Inn.

Meanwhile, her accomplice, an 18-year-old youth, pleaded guilty in January to attempted murder and was sentenced to three years — the maximum allowed — in custody under the YCJA’s Intensive Rehabilitative Custody and Supervision (IRCS) Program.

The youth will serve two years in custody and one year in the community under supervision.

Case facts

Judge Chow reviewed the facts, noting that after the youth shot the victim, Windover took the firearm and, with the youth and another woman, jumped into an SUV and fled. They then drove around the area for several hours before she dumped the weapon in the ditch.

Police arrested Windover two days after the incident and asked her to help them locate the firearm, but even with her assistance, officers found nothing, the judge continued.

Windover admitted to storing the shotgun at home before the incident, but Judge Chow said there was no evidence she transported it to the scene of the shooting or knew the youth possessed it or intended to shoot the victim.

Personal history

The judge reviewed Windover’s criminal record, which began in 2014 and featured “a burst of criminal activity” in that year and in 2015, with her last charge in 2020. He also noted that she had a lengthy history of failing to comply with court orders.

Continuing, he said Windover — who is Caucasian and has three children — had a “chaotic and dysfunctional childhood” that must be taken into account, similar to how the courts considered Aboriginal offenders’ backgrounds during sentencing.

Windover never met her biological father until she was a teenager, while her mother — who was an alcoholic and directed her anger at her children — worked hard to provide for them, the judge said.

“As a result, the offender often felt neglected due to her mother’s alcoholism and time away from the home,” Judge Chow remarked, noting that Windover was close to her stepfather until he died in 2022.

Windover left home at age 16 and began using drugs, while she dropped out of school in Grade 10 and did not acquire her Grade 12 diploma until she was an adult, the judge said. She became sober after her children’s births, but three significant events occurred in 2022 that prompted her return to drugs to cope.

Those events included separating from her partner, the death of her stepdad and her ex-partner running away with the children to British Columbia and obtaining custody of them.

Windover has been sober since her arrest, while she has expressed remorse toward the victim and has accepted responsibility, said Judge Chow.

She is also taking addiction counselling, dealing with her childhood trauma and stepfather’s death, reconnecting with her now-sober mother, arranging a sober living location upon her release and planning to reunite with her three children.

Similar case law

“The Saskatchewan Primary Risk Assessment places the offender in the medium category. Her risk factors include residence, peers and substance use,” the judge continued.

Judge Chow noted that the Crown and defence “referred heavily” to a case where an Aboriginal woman, Jeannette Kakakaway, helped her brother — who was involved in gangs and drugs — cover up a murder by cleaning the scene since she was afraid of him. The court sentenced her to three years for being an accessory after the fact to murder.

“The sentence to be applied to (Windover) … must be proportionate to the gravity of the offence and the degree of responsibility of this particular offender,” the judge stated. “(This) charge is not as serious as the one in the Kakakaway decision.”

Judge Chow said Windover and Kakakaway both had troubled childhoods that likely led to their drug use and criminal behaviour, so it was “entirely appropriate” for him to consider the parallels of Windover’s upbringing to that of Kakakaway’s, even though the former was not Aboriginal.

Continuing, the judge compared Kakakaway’s criminal situation to Windover’s, saying the latter handled the firearm — but did not use it — and fled the scene with the teen, while she did not fear him nor feel coerced by him, but instead felt responsible for him. Also, she co-operated with the police, attempted to find the firearm, entered guilty pleas and demonstrated remorse.

Judge Chow also said that, in the Kakakaway decision, the judge reviewed past case law and found that sentences for being an accessory after the fact to murder ranged from 15 months to five years, with the average being three years.

The sentence

Based upon the cases that that judge referenced, Judge Chow said he placed Windover’s contributions in the “moderate to high degree of involvement” category.  

Meanwhile, Judge Chow said he wasn’t convinced that a community jail sentence would be appropriate, due to Windover’s reported risk to reoffend. Instead, he said the woman’s “rehabilitation aspirations” were not inconsistent with time in jail; her current efforts on remand had put her “on a solid path,” while similar resources were available in a provincial jail.

Also, he didn’t think federal jail was appropriate since that would be “disproportionate” to Windover’s offence of being an accessory after the fact to attempted murder, compared to Kakakaway’s situation connected to murder.  

“Denunciation, specific and general deterrence, and rehabilitation can all be accomplished with a further period of time in a provincial correctional (centre),” said Judge Chow, who then handed Windover a 20-month jail sentence — minus enhanced remand credit — and two years of probation.