Jury hears about autopsy findings, fatal shot

Thomas Dustyhorn died as a result of a shotgun wound to his head and neck.

A jury heard that conclusion, officially, on Wednesday as the trial of Eric Charles Favel continued in Regina's Court of King's Bench.

The 35-year-old stands accused of second-degree murder in relation to Dustyhorn's November 2021 death. He pleaded not guilty to the charge when his trial began on April 29.

The aforementioned conclusion about Dustyhorn's death, delivered by forensic pathologist Shaun Ladham, likely came as no surprise to jury members.

Favel told police, in a statement played in court, that he'd been attacked in his room at a home on the Kawacatoose First Nation on Nov. 26, 2021. In what he described as an effort to defend himself, he grabbed what turned out to be a 12-gauge shotgun.

Although he told police he didn't touch the trigger, and he didn't intend to hurt anyone with the firearm, he acknowledged it went off and left Dustyhorn seriously injured.

The now-deceased man had actually been attempting to help him by trying to stop the attack, Favel told the interviewer.

What would he say to Dustyhorn, if he could?

“I'm sorry. It was never supposed to be like this,” he said.

However, the interviewing officer challenged the accused man on his assertion that he was on the ground being beaten when the gun went off.

Favel agreed he had a lot of anger toward his stepfather, whom he alleged was one of the people attacking him. But that man told a different story, the officer said, informing police that Favel was allowed to get up before he raised the barrel of the gun. The stepfather told police he'd grabbed the barrel before the gun went off.

While the forensic pathologist's conclusion on the cause of death may not be at issue, he was questioned by lawyers on both sides of the case with regard to the path the shotgun pellets took as they created the mortal wound to Dustyhorn.

Those pellets, from a round of double-aught buckshot, struck the right side of his chin and the floor of his mouth, breaking his jaw, Ladham told prosecutor Arjun Shankar. Some continued into the back of his neck. Some went into his right shoulder and upper back, with a number of exit wounds observed there.

When asked for clarification about the trajectory, he said: “It's going backwards, it's going downward and it's going slightly rightward.”

That orientation is just in the body, he noted.

He told court that the efforts of surgeons affected his ability to determine the precise extent of the damage caused specifically by the pellets.

“In this case, they tried as much they could,” Ladham said. “It was just impossible to stop him from bleeding.”

When Ladham was cross-examined, the questions of Jeff Deagle, one of two defence lawyers working on Favel's behalf, were brief and pertained to trajectory.

The pathologist's explanation did not pertain to the “point of origin” of the shot, he acknowledged.

“From the trajectory within the body, you can't make any determinations of whether the person was standing, bent over, sitting, anything like that,” Deagle put to him.

“No, I cannot,” Ladham responded.

The trial is scheduled to continue Thursday.