Co-worker pleads guilty in beating death of Saskatoon father

A Saskatoon man has pleaded guilty to killing a co-worker in a fight in a bowling alley in Winkler, Man. last fall.

Justin Bird, 29, admitted to manslaughter in a Portage-La-Prairie courtroom Thursday morning.

Zachary Straughan,25, died after Bird beat him with a pool cue last September.

The men had traveled to Manitoba for work on behalf of Saskatoon-based Top Shot Concrete.

The Saskatoon man is survived by four children, including a daughter born after the tragedy.

Straughan’s family told 650 CKOM last fall the fight was over a $16 bar tab.

“Everything was fine and he was talking with his co-workers. I was sending him pictures of my belly,” His partner Ashley Hague, who was pregnant at the time, said.

“And then all of the sudden, he stopped talking to me. I knew something was wrong because he never stops texting me.”

Bird will be sentenced in the fall.

—With files from the Canadian Press.