Jurors find man not guilty in connection to fatal shooting on First Nation in 2021
A jury has found Eric Charles Favel not guilty in relation to the 2021 death of Thomas Dustyhorn.
Favel, 35, stood trial on a charge of second-degree murder, to which he pleaded not guilty when the proceedings began in Regina's Court of King's Bench on April 29.
The jury began deliberations around 1 p.m. Friday after hearing closing arguments and receiving final instructions. The verdict came after roughly six hours of deliberation.
The case involved a night of drinking and violence in a home on the Kawacatoose First Nation. This spilled over into the following morning of Nov. 26, 2021, when, amid chaos, Dustyhorn was fatally shot in the face.
Accounts of what transpired before, during and after the deadly incident were not consistent between witnesses at trial.
Favel had been drinking with his stepdad (Terry Asapace), his aunt
(Prairie Asapace) and her partner (Dustyhorn) in the kitchen of the home on the evening of Nov. 25.
Favel testified that when an argument broke out, Prairie and Terry beat on him, and he was struck with a metal bar. He said his brother, Coty Favel-asapace, came home as this was occurring and stopped it.
After the altercation, Terry, Prairie and Dustyhorn left.
Favel said when the group returned, some calm was restored, so he joined them for a time along with his brother at the kitchen table. Then he went to bed.
However, Favel testified that when he woke up in the morning, he opened his bedroom door to see the group still in the kitchen and that a bong he'd recently purchased had been smashed on the floor. When he commented about this, he said he was attacked again by the same two family members.
Favel told court he was being struck when he reached blindly from the ground for something to defend himself. He said he unknowingly grabbed a 12-gauge shotgun by the “middle” of the gun shortly before the gun went off, wounding Dustyhorn, who had been trying to stop the beating. He maintained at trial that he never touched the trigger and only realized he was holding a gun after the shot.
Terry testified that Favel was the aggressor in the initial altercation and menaced the group with two guns, first a rifle and then the shotgun, before the second altercation.
He told court he intervened and eventually pinned Favel to the floor of his bedroom.
Terry said that when Dustyhorn prompted him to let Favel go, he did. Favel then got up, raised the barrel of the shotgun and threatened to shoot him, Terry testified. He said he grabbed the barrel and pushed it away from himself before the shot went off.
Justice Graeme Mitchell provided thorough instructions to the jury members before they began deliberation. There were effectively three potential outcomes: guilty of second-degree murder, guilty of manslaughter, or not guilty.
After the verdict of not guilty was read out, Mitchell thanked the jurors and then told the man in the prisoner's box that he was free to go.
The announcement was met with applause from those in the gallery who were there to support Favel.
When he walked into the courthouse foyer, on his way to the street where family members waited, Favel embraced lawyer Lisa Smart and thanked her.
“We are very, very pleased with the verdict, obviously,” Smart said. “Eric is relieved and he's really looking forward to spending time with his family.”
The defence lawyer said the nearly 2½ years leading up to the jury's decision was a long, hard journey for Favel.
“We're happy it's over,” Smart concluded.