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Stabbing victim 'can sleep now'
Man says he is relieved after charges laid against Denecho King in deadly attack that he survived but killed friend

John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 6, 2015

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A man who survived an attack in which his best friend was killed said he is relieved now that someone has been charged with murder and attempted murder.

NNSL photo/graphic

Denecho King, 22, is charged with murder in the death of John Wifladt, and attempted murder of Wifladt's friend Colin Digness. King, who was in custody when he was charged, appeared briefly in court Monday and remains in custody. - photo courtesy of Facebook

Colin Digness, 41, told Yellowknifer on Monday that the RCMP had come to his apartment Friday morning to inform him that someone had now been charged. Denecho Noel King, 22, is facing charges of murder in the death of John Wifladt, 39, and the attempted murder of Digness.

Speculation was rampant following the incident that the two had gotten into a sword fight using ornamental samurai swords Digness kept in his apartment where the two men were found unconscious and bleeding in the early morning hours of Dec. 14. Wifladt later died at Stanton Territorial Hospital. Digness was medevaced to a hospital in Edmonton with injuries to his face and stomach.

"I can sleep better now," said Digness. "People I know they were really hating me because of my friend's death and they were blaming me. Now that they've arrested someone they want to be friends with me again."

He spent more than a month recovering in hospital.

"I still have the effects of a concussion. I can see out of my eye now but my stomach is still painful though," Digness said.

Last February, in an interview with Yellowknifer after he'd been discharged from hospital, Digness said someone had busted through his apartment door while he and Wifladt were inside.

"That person hit me in the face with something heavy and then I think they attacked John before they then stabbed me," Digness said.

He also expressed concerns that the person who attacked him might come back to "finish the job."

Police have never said whether a sword was involved in the attack. They have not released any information on a murder weapon, including whether any weapons had been seized after the attack.

Digness told Yellowknifer in February that he had two swords in his apartment that were no longer there. He said he didn't know if police had taken them.

RCMP stated in a news release in early March that they had not ruled out the possibility that a third party was responsible for the death and the injuries. At that time, they appealed to the public for information that could help in their investigation.

RCMP announced in a news release Friday that King had been charged. He was already in custody, charged along with another man and a woman with robbery after a cabbie was allegedly mugged by three people in his taxi back in February of this year.

King made a brief court appearance on Monday. His next appearance will be by video from the North Slave Correctional Centre on May 19.

The only condition placed on King was that he have no contact with Colin Digness, said Crown prosecutor Alex Godfrey.

King was sentenced in July 2013 to 26 months, less time served, for hacking his friend with a machete in Fort Providence.

Both police and the Crown prosecutor have not said whether King will face first or second degree murder charges.

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