Crown says victim told to ‘pray’ before fatal beating

In providing a roadmap of what he anticipates court will hear in the coming weeks, co-Crown prosecutor Derek Maher told a Regina jury that Shawn Roderick Douglas was directed to “pray to his God” before he was beaten to death almost three years ago.

The jury attended Regina Court of Queen’s Bench for the first time on Thursday in the trial of three men — Johnathon Nelson Peepeetch, 26, Dennis Calvin Thompson, 35, and Joshua Duane Wilson, 26 — who are facing firstdegree murder charges in the Aug. 7, 2014, death of the 54-year-old man.

Maher’s opening address to jurors isn’t considered evidence, but rather is intended to give the jury an idea of what evidence they can expect to hear during the course of the trial, currently set for six weeks.

Maher said evidence will show Douglas suffered “significant and multiple injuries,” his death the result of blunt-force trauma to the head.

“We anticipate that you’ll hear evidence as to how Mr. Douglas was beaten, robbed, put into the trunk of a car and driven out of Regina to an isolated spot on a country road in the early morning hours of Aug. 7, 2014,” Maher told jurors.

“Once at that spot, we expect you’ll hear testimony that Mr. Douglas was taken out of the trunk, bound at the wrists and ankles and taken down to a thicket of bushes off the side of the road. We anticipate that you’ll then hear how Mr. Douglas was then told to pray to his God and then beaten to death with hammers and other tools.”

Douglas’ body was found by police in that spot two days later.

Maher told the jury Douglas ran into a woman he knew at a Regina restaurant on the evening of Aug. 6, 2014, and decided to join the woman and several others at a gathering at a house on Toronto Street. Maher said the Crown intends to prove that, during the course of the night, Douglas was beaten and taken to a local financial institution where he was forced to withdraw money.

Eventually Douglas was put into the back seat of a car and driven around before, sometime early that morning, the group decided to put him in the trunk, the jury was told. Maher said he expects the evidence will show Douglas’ attempt to escape at that point was unsuccessful and he was knocked out and dragged back before being placed into the trunk — part of which was caught on video by witnesses who called police.

Police launched a search but Maher said they ended up “a few too many steps behind.” Maher said police located and arrested those charged in Saskatoon later that day, but weren’t able to locate the body for another two days.

On Thursday, the jury heard from the officer who, with the help of his canine partner, found Douglas lying face down in a grove of trees near a slough just east of Zehner at 1:45 p.m. on Aug. 9, 2014.

Cpl. Jody Lorence pointed out Douglas’ body, partially concealed within the trees approximately 20 metres from the road, in photographs shown to the jury.