Manslaughter plea sends Sask. man to jail for 15 years

Raymond Joseph Roberts and Gilbert Mccallum were part of the same group involved in a Saskatoon home invasion that ended with Mccallum being shot in the back of the head in a field.

Roberts, Mccallum, Korena Jolynn Bonneau, Johnathon Richard Tremblay and John Clint Tinker were members of the same Prince Albert gang and had driven to Saskatoon to rob someone of drugs and money on April 16, 2019, according to the agreed facts presented Friday during Roberts’ sentencing in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Tremblay told another woman, after the robbery, that Mccallum “screwed up.” On their way back to Prince Albert, the group pulled onto a side road near Rosthern that they called “the love spot.”

Roberts declared “victory rounds” and the group grabbed their guns to fire shots.

“Roberts had a .22 calibre hand gun which was later used to shoot Mccallum in the back of the head, an offence to which he admits being a party,” the facts state. The gun was later found at Roberts’ home.

Instead of going to trial for first-degree murder, Roberts, 31, pleaded guilty to manslaughter with a firearm on Friday. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison after Justice Mona Dovell accepted a joint submission from Crown prosecutor Bryce Pashovitz and defence lawyer Kathy Hodgson-smith.

The group took Mccallum’s phone, identification and watch and left him in a field near Rosthern, where his body, blackened by decay, was found two months later. A forensic pathologist later determined he had been shot twice in the head.

Meanwhile, Mccallum’s family members had been searching for their missing loved one.

“Taking my brother from me has been unimaginably hard. My brother was a great person; he was my best friend,” one of his sisters said during the sentencing hearing.

Roberts, Bonneau, Tremblay and Tinker were charged in connection with Mccallum’s death two years later, in March 2018, while they were in custody on other charges.

Bonneau, 37, was sentenced on May 5 to seven years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter for her involvement in Mccallum’s death. The details of her sentencing hearing were protected by a publication ban to ensure Roberts received a fair trial.

Tremblay, 24, and Tinker, 21, were each sentenced to 11 years after pleading guilty to manslaughter last year.

Roberts received 13 years on the manslaughter charge, one year consecutive for intimidating a justice system participant while in custody in January 2018 and another year for stabbing a fellow inmate at the Regina Correctional Centre with a shank in August 2018.