No jail for woman who stabbed man at Kelowna’s tent city

A former Kelowna woman who stabbed a man in the hand during an altercation at a Kelowna homeless encampment has avoided a jail cell.

Judge Cathaline Heinrichs told 33-year-old Mercedes Fenton that prison was normally the expected outcome for such a violent offence.

“It hardly needs to be said, but stabbing somebody is not an acceptable behaviour,” the Judge told a Kelowna courtroom today, May 15, adding that Fenton could have killed the man.

Few details were given about the exact incident that took place in March 2025 at a homeless encampment in Kelowna.

Paramedics informed police that they had dealt with a man who had been stabbed.

“It appeared as if the blade went right through the hand,” Crown prosecutor Catherine Rezansoff said.

“You can see the entry and exit wound, and he was bleeding significantly from it.”

The victim, Michael McEwan, wouldn’t cooperate with police who used CCTV footage to identify Fenton.

She’d left in a vehicle immediately after the attack, but returned to tent city later, and police arrested her.

Fenton told police she didn’t remember and wouldn’t give details, but later confessed to what happened, knowing that the CCTV had captured the event.

The Crown said Fenton had given McEwan a ride earlier that day, but that he had started “freak out.”

While Fenton was scared of McEwan, the stabbing wasn’t done in self-defence, the Crown said.

Fenton was charged with assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm, but in a plea deal with prosecutors pleaded guilty to assault with a weapon.

In a joint submission to the court, lawyers requested four months’ house arrest, followed by probation.

The court heard how Fenton was Indigenous and had grown up surrounded by drug abuse and violence. Her father had attended residential school, and both her parents had suffered from substance use. 

She herself had started drinking at a very young age and progressed to methamphetamine. She dropped out of school in Grade 8 and spent time in foster care.

As an adult, Fenton had been the victim of domestic abuse herself and once had her jaw broken, requiring 30 stitches. 

Fenton has a lengthy criminal record, although mainly for breaches of probation. There is also a decade gap in her offending.

Shortly after the stabbing, she had realized she was pregnant and had now been sober for almost a year.

She’d left Kelowna for Vancouver and now has stable housing, living with her partner and newborn son.

“She has worked and continues to work diligently to break patterns rooted in childhood marked with violence, instability and exposure,” the court heard.

Numerous support workers wrote glowing letters about Fenton’s progress.

“I know what I want for my son, and I’m determined to give him everything I never had,” Fenton had told one letter writer.

“It’s clear from (your) history… that you have been put into such a difficult situation as a child growing up. You did not have the support of your parents, but not only did you not have the support, they also put you in very dangerous situations,” the Judge said. “But despite that, I see something quite remarkable.”

The Judge noted that Fenton had later in life finished high school, and that since the stabbing, her life had completely turned around.

“That tells me that you’ve got that spirit in you, that persistence, that when you set a goal, you can maintain that goal and you can accomplish it,” Judge Heinrichs said.

Ultimately, Judge Heinrichs accepted the joint submission for four months’ house arrest, noting that a jail sentence would mean she could no longer breastfeed her son.

“Making that connection, it’s important for you to continue to be able to do so,” she said.