Assault charge stayed against Moose Jaw man

A Moose Jaw man will not face an upgraded charge in the death of his commonlaw wife, and the Crown has stayed an earlier aggravated assault charge.

After receiving the pathologist’s report into the death of 66-year-old Donna Acton, also of Moose Jaw, the Crown prosecutor has determined there is insufficient evidence to support additional charges against William Akins, 58.

Akins had been charged with aggravated assault after Acton was found injured on Oct. 10.

“We essentially applied the same test to (the aggravated assault charge) and came to the same conclusion, that, in as much as we couldn’t lay a charge of murder or manslaughter with the evidence that we had, did we feel that we had a reasonable likelihood of obtaining a conviction on the aggravated assault charge? And the answer was also no on that, so that was why that was stayed,” Moose Jaw Crown prosecutor Rob Parker said Wednesday.

Parker wouldn’t reveal Acton’s cause of death, nor would he elaborate how the Crown’s office came to its conclusion regarding the stayed aggravated assault charge, as that information is confidential, he said.

The Crown has up to one year to re-activate Akins’s assault charge if new evidence comes to light, according to Parker. The Moose Jaw Police Service will continue its investigation, said Sgt. Cliff Froehlich.

In the early morning hours of Oct. 10, Moose Jaw police and paramedics were called to the 1000 block of Hopkins Crescent where they found Acton injured. Acton was taken to Regina General Hospital, where she died from her injuries 19 days later. Akins’s July 16 and 17 preliminary hearing into his aggravated assault charge has been cancelled.