Manslaughter plea entered in 2023 death of woman in her Edmonton home

Ryan Farell pleaded guilty to manslaughter on Wednesday in the death of Lauren Jarvis in 2023. CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson reports.

Family and friends of a Saskatchewan woman killed in her Edmonton home by a man she didn’t know were in an Edmonton courtroom on Wednesday to see the man accused in her death plead guilty to manslaughter.

Lauren Jarvis, 27, was killed on April 2, 2023.

She was attacked in the four-plex where she lived near 109 Avenue and 122 Street by a man she knew only as her neighbour’s son.

In an agreed statement of facts, court heard Ryan Farrell hit Jarvis with a walking stick and strangled her before covering her head with a bag and wrapping her body in a carpet.

An autopsy found her cause of death was a combination of strangulation and blunt force trauma.

Many details were heard for the first time by family and friends who packed into a courtroom.

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“[It] isn’t like losing a grandparent or losing your mom or your dad to something natural. This is awful. This is atrocious,” Jarvis’ best friend Cassandra Wildermuth said.

Farrell was originally charged with second-degree murder, which carries a minimum sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 10 years.

He pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter.

“[The] system is broken. Our hearts are broken. We feel that this is not justice,” Wildermuth said.

More than a dozen people read statements, often through tears, telling the court how losing Jarvis has impacted them.

Wildermuth played a video she made, giving people a glimpse into the life of three best friends.

The Crown and defence then presented a joint sentence submission of 10.5 years in prison, though the justice does not have to accept it.

The hearing will resume on Thursday and Farell will find out his sentence.