Witness contradicts earlier statements on shooting

A man who witnessed the fatal 2017 shooting of Saskatoon father Tyler Applegate testified that he didn’t see Dallin Lane Singharath pull the trigger, despite admitting to saying so in previous statements.

“I’m trying to be as honest as possible,” the man — who, like several witnesses, cannot be identified due to a publication ban — testified on Monday at Singharath’s second-degree murder trial.

He said he saw Singharath leaning to the side and heard a shot go off in a 33rd Street West alley on July 22, 2017. He agreed with Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss that he never previously described the shooting as accidental.

“I’m not saying it was an accident, but I’m not the judge of that,” the man said on the stand.

Bliss closed the Crown’s case and defence lawyer Laura Mischuk did not call any evidence as the judge-alone trial entered its second week at Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Lawyers are expected to make arguments on Tuesday about whether the shooting was accidental or intentional.

Through an agreed statement of facts entered as evidence, Singharath, 21, admits he fired a sawedoff .22 calibre rifle and caused the death of Applegate, a 27-year-old father of five whom he had never met.

Applegate was shot as he walked toward the back gate of his duplex. Court heard a group of men returned to fight Applegate after Applegate confronted a man for urinating on his fence.

He died three weeks later from a single wound in his abdomen.

Following a hearing last week, Justice Richard Elson ruled the final witness would testify on the court’s behalf after the Crown opted not to call him as its witness. Both the Crown and defence were able to cross-examine him.

The witness testified that Singharath appeared to be high on methamphetamine at the time of the shooting, agreeing with Mischuk that people act jittery and paranoid while on meth and that he knows this because he also used hard drugs.