Judge acquits man of home invasion charges
A 31-year-old Saskatoon man is celebrating his freedom after a Queen’s Bench judge acquitted him of a slate of charges connected to a violent home invasion in which a man was beaten and a sawed-off shotgun was discharged into a ceiling.
Gregory Lloyd Friesen was “probably a participant” in the botched late-night robbery at a basement suite in the Varsity View neighbourhood in September 2010, but the evidence presented at his trial last month was not enough to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, Justice Neil Gabrielson ruled Thursday.
Two of Friesen’s friends, 22-yearold Bradley Christianson and 25-year-old Cole Sigurdson, previously pleaded guilty to attempted robbery in connection with the incident. Christianson is serving a fiveyear prison sentence and Sigurdson is serving four years.
Christianson was arrested soon after police were called to the scene, when a canine unit discovered him hiding on the roof of a garden shed behind another home a few blocks away. The shotgun was found concealed in a bush nearby. One of Sigurdson’s running shoes was also found in the area.
None of the three people who lived in the basement suite could identify anyone who took part in the home invasion and police were unable to find any physical evidence of Friesen’s presence, Gabrielson noted.
Christianson and Sigurdson both implicated Friesen in statements to police after they were arrested. However, both subsequently recanted at his trial, testifying that they had lied about his involvement.
Christianson then “recanted his recanting” on the witness stand when confronted with the presence of Father Andre Poilievre, the judge noted. Poilievre is a Catholic priest who founded Str8up, a program to help gang members denounce their criminal lifestyles. Christianson has a history of involvement with several gangs and is a member of the program.
The priest’s presence in the gallery of the courtroom “seemed to have a significant impact on Christianson,” Gabrielson remarked, noting Christianson told court “I came today to lie (for Friesen) because I am going to get killed over this.”
The two convicted men are “selfadmitted liars,” and none of their “numerous and inconsistent” versions of events matched the evidence given by the three victims who were in the basement suite at the time, the judge noted. “The lack of credibility of Christianson and Sigurdson who are the only witnesses to link the accused to the home invasion is such that I cannot be satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt as to what the actual circumstances were during the home invasion or whether the accused took part in it.”