Murder charge laid
Denecho King in custody four months after men found unconcious in bloody apartment scene
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Monday, May 4, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A man, currently in custody at the North Slave Correctional Centre, has been charged with murder and attempted murder in connection with an attack on two men at the Sunridge Place apartment on Dec. 14 of last year.
Police accuse Denecho Noel King, 22, of killing John Wifladt, 39, and wounding Colin Digness, 41, both of Yellowknife. Both men, described as best friends, were found unconscious in Digness' apartment by emergency personnel early in the morning.
At the time, Wifladt's brother told Yellowknifer he had heard a sword was used. RCMP never confirmed that or whether the murder weapon had been recovered.
In a Feb. 13 interview with News/North Digness, who spent more than a month in an Edmonton hospital with wounds to his eye, said that two swords, which he owned and described as toys, were missing when he returned home from the hospital.
Police had not told him wither they had seized the weapons, he said.
King was sentenced in July of 2013 to 26 months for hacking his friend with a machete in Fort Providence.
He is currently in custody, charged with robbery after a cabbie was mugged on Latham Island on Feb. 25.
Another man and a woman are also charged in that robbery.
It was not known at press time how long King has been in custody.
This latest arrest is the result of a thorough investigation by the RCMP's major crimes unit with the support of the Mounties' forensic investigation services, police stated in a news release.
"It is our hope that this arrest can bring some measure of comfort to the victim and the families of those affected by this terrible crime," stated Sgt. Eric Lane of the RCMP major crimes unit in a news release.
No court date has been given for King.
