A Winnipeg woman who fatally stabbed her mother and then hid the knife before going on the run and lying to police about the circumstances leading up to her mom's death has been sentenced to eight years in jail after pleading guilty to manslaughter.

But the judge, defence and Crown prosecutor all agree that Hailey Barker, who was 18 when she stabbed her mom in 2018, faced incredible hardships in her life that began from the moment she was born.

Barker nodded her head on Wednesday when Manitoba Court of Queen's Bench Justice Chris Martin asked if she had any regrets.

The Winnipeg woman, who hails from Hollow Water First Nation, stabbed her mom Christine last May after the two got into an argument.

The incident happened at Barker's grandmother's home on Beaumont Bay in Fort Garry where the three lived together with Christine's brother.

Christine Barker poses in a photo posted to Facebook June 22, 2015. (Christine Barker/Facebook)

Sometime after 11 a.m. on May 28, Christine yelled for help to her brother, who was in the basement of the home. "She said, 'She stabbed me,'" Crown attorney Mark Kantor told the court, reading notes from the man.

He ran upstairs and called for help to Hailey, who told him Christine shouldn't have been talking "s---." The uncle, who didn't have a phone, ran to a nearby gas station and called 911.

Hailey also called 911 and indicated her mother was knocked out and not breathing but said she didn't know what was going on. "I don't know. I was upstairs," Kantor said she told the 911 operator.

The stabbing happened in 2018 in this Beaumont Bay home. (Jaison Empson/CBC)

Christine died in hospital later that day of a single stab wound to the chest. Court heard Hailey admitted to her grandmother that she stabbed her mom but lied, saying the stabbing was self-defence because her mom had been waving a big butcher knife at her.

"Me and my mom got into a big fight just because I asked her to leave me alone," Kantor told the court she said.

Accused initially lied to police

After hiding for almost a week, Hailey was arrested at a home on Sherbrook Street. She told police in a lengthy interview that her mom pushed a door at her and started punching her repeatedly.

She told detectives she thought her mother had a utility knife in her hand and feared she was going to use it so she grabbed a kitchen knife on the floor and stabbed her mom in her chest.

But after being confronted by police with contradictory evidence, Hailey relented and admitted her mom didn't have a knife and said a friend had told her to say that. She never retracted her statement that her mother assaulted her.

Hailey told police where she hid the knife used in the stabbing. Testing revealed the knife had Christine's DNA on it.

Kantor said materials presented by the defence paint a clear picture of Hailey having a troubled upbringing. She was in foster care throughout her life and lives with ADHD, anxiety and depression.

"Her youth was very troubled including her difficult relationship with her mother. There's clear indication that she was neglected throughout her life."

Defence attorney Leonard Tailleur read from several reports related to Hailey's time in the child welfare system.

Left on street with dirty diapers as baby

When Hailey was a baby she was found abandoned on Manitoba Avenue with a jug of milk and four diapers. Christine told authorities she had left her baby in the care of people who were using alcohol.

Tailleur also read a tip given to CFS officials anonymously in 1999.

"Christine is always drunk and leaving her baby with intoxicated inappropriate caregivers," the tipster said.

In 2004, CFS received a referral after Hailey had bruises on her arms. Tailleur told court a year later prostitutes would go through Christine's apartment and leave condoms on the floor.

Mom skipped visits with daughter

Tailleur said Hailey displays every indication of fetal alcohol spectrum disorder though she's never been formally diagnosed with it and said Christine would often not show up to foster visits with her daughter. "When she did she was high or hungover," he said.

All of this led to a troubled relationship and created questions in Hailey's young mind. "She often wanted to know why Christine treated her the way she did as a child," Tailleur said.

Justice Chris Martin accepted a joint recommendation of eight years for the killing, saying he thinks the circumstances are the most unique he's seen during his 10 years on the bench.

The sentence takes into account Gladue factors ⁠— judges are required to gauge the influence of factors such as residential schools, the Sixties Scoop or the child welfare system's effect on Indigenous offenders into consideration when sentencing.

It's a very sad set of circumstances as I understand it. The ingredients leading to what boiled over on this particular day have been in place since this girl was born. - Justice Chris Martin

"It's a very sad set of circumstances as I understand it. The ingredients leading to what boiled over on this particular day have been in place since this girl was born.

"It's not been something she's been able to grow out of."

Martin said there's no doubt in his mind that Christine probably suffered her own trauma that led to a life of addiction and the inability to be a good mother.

"That planted pretty much the seeds of what boiled over and erupted on May 28, 2018."

With credit for time already served in custody, Hailey, who had no previous criminal record, will spend the next 6½ years behind bars. She's also required to give a DNA sample to police and has a lifetime weapons prohibition.

Hailey was originally charged with second-degree murder but she received the lesser charge of manslaughter as part of the joint recommendation.