Witness says she saw masked men chase, shoot murder victim

A Saskatoon woman told a jury she saw a man being chased by two masked men and shot on Preston Avenue more than 13 years ago.

“At first it felt like a game. It was surreal,” Sonja Muzika testified on Monday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Muzika was the first witness at the first-degree murder trial of Neil Lee Yakimchuk, 37, who is accused in what Crown prosecutor Michael Segu called “the very public killing ” of drug dealer Isho Hana on April 15, 2004.

Segu told the jury he will call evidence that will show Yakimchuk chased Hana, 34, through the street and shot him multiple times.

Crown witnesses are expected to relate that police had no viable suspects at the time of the shooting but that Yakimchuk confessed to the murder in 2011 to undercover police investigators in Calgary, who were posing as members of a fictitious criminal organization.

The jury will hear that Yakimchuk told the story of killing Hana more than once, providing more detail with each telling, including facts about the number of shots fired, where they hit the body, the calibre of gun used and his motive, Segu said.

Evidence will include a video recording of Yakimchuk’s account of an escalating drug war between his childhood friend Jonathan Dombowsky and Hana, who were competing for the drug trade in Saskatoon. It includes accounts of another shooting, houses and garages deliberately set on fire and the hospitalization of Dombowsky after a severe beating, Segu said.

It will also include Yakimchuk being promised $45,000 to ‘take care’ of Hana, with half of it paid up front.

Segu told the jury accused persons charged after confessing in so-called “Mr. Big” stings often say they lied to the undercover officers because they wanted to continue receiving money or were just saying what they thought the “boss” wanted to here. The Crown will argue Yakimchuk could have walked away at any time and he knew details that had never been publicized, Segu said.

The defence has already agreed to some facts that will not have to be proven during the trial, including that Hana was shot twice in the back and died from blood loss. His autopsy found traces of cocaine in his urine. There were multiple, pending drug trafficking charges against him.

The defence has also agreed there had been a fire at Dombowsky’s house in 2004 and one at Hana’s the year before that.

The trial began Monday and is set to last four weeks.