‘We need fair justice for Colten’
Farmer’s trial for killing Indigenous man begins in Saskatchewan
BATTLE FORD, SASK .• Shooting victim Colten Boushie’s mother left the courtroom during testimony from the first witness in the murder trial for Gerald Stanley, a case that has attracted national attention due to its racial overtones.
Stanley, a white farmer, is accused of fatally shooting Boushie, 22, a Cree man from the Red Pheasant First Nation, on Aug. 9, 2016, after Boushie and four friends drove onto Stanley’s rural property.
An hour before the first witness testimony began on Tuesday, Boushie’s mother, Debbie Baptiste, entered Battleford Court of Queen’s Bench, saying only that she wants “justice for my son.”
As RCMP Cpl. Terry Heroux testified, using aerial photos of the farm and then photos showing Boushie’s body, Baptiste left the room. In a brief interview, Baptiste said she doesn’t have faith that justice will be served.
“We need fair justice for my son and that’s what we’re hoping to do here, is get a fair justice for Colten,” she said. Asked if she feels justice is possible with a jury that contains no visible Indigenous members, she said: “No, and it sucks.”
Saskatchewan Chief Justice Martel Popescul, who is presiding over the trial, told the court Monday he expects the public to be well-behaved during the proceedings. “Any person violating the sanctity of the proceedings will be asked to stop, failing which, they will be asked to leave the court,” he said.
Crown prosecutor Bill Burge delivered his opening statement on Tuesday, shedding light on the events before and after Boushie’s death. He told the jury that one of the first witnesses he expected to call on Wednesday is Gerald Stanley’s son, Sheldon.
Burge said Sheldon will tell the jury that he was helping his father build a fence on the farm when the two of them heard a vehicle enter the yard. They hadn’t thought much of it at first because Gerald did mechanical work for people in the area and the father and son assumed it was someone coming to pick something up. However, Burge said someone in the vehicle tried to start one of the Stanleys’ quads and Sheldon reacted.
According to Burge, Sheldon will say he chased the vehicle and struck its windshield with a hammer. The vehicle backed up and struck one of the Stanleys’ vehicles. Burge said Sheldon will testify that he ran into the house to get his car keys, hoping to chase the vehicle, and that while he was inside, he heard two gunshots. Sheldon will testify that as he was leaving the house he heard a third shot, and when he got out of his house he saw his father with a gun in his hand, Burge said. When Sheldon looked in the car, he saw Colten Boushie slumped lifelessly over the steering wheel, Burge told the jury.
An autopsy determined that a gunshot wound to the head was the cause of Boush- ie’s death, Burge told court.
Heroux, the Crown’s first witness, said the passenger window of the car Boushie was found in was shattered, leading him to believe that a shot had been fired from the direction of the driver’s-side window and passed through the passenger-side window.
Burge said Stanley was arrested and tested positive for gunshot residue. The test indicated Stanley had fired a gun, had been in close proximity to a gun when it was fired, or handled a gun that had been recently fired. Burge also said a Russianmade handgun with Boushie’s DNA was found in Stanley’s home.
Heroux told the jury that, when he arrived on Stanley’s farm, he saw Boushie’s body lying by a grey Ford Escape with the driver’s door open. A .22-calibre rifle barrel with a bullet in the chamber was lying next to the body.
Under cross- examination by Stanley’s lawyer, Scott Spencer, Heroux said he didn’t know where the rifle came from. He said an empty box of .22- calibre cartridges was found in the Ford and that 17 live rounds and 11 spent casings that were compatible with the rifle were found in the vehicle.
Burge told the jury he served subpoenas to everyone who was at Stanley’s farm on the day Boushie died and who would have something to say about the case.
“There may well be some serious contradictions to what people saw,” Burge told the jury. “You will be in a very good position to determine what the facts are.”