Year later, more charges laid in shooting death of Six Nation father
BRANTFORD — Two men accused of accessory after the fact in the shooting death of a young Six Nations father now face additional charges more than a year after he was killed.
Aaron Martin, 40, and Jeffrey Martin, 37, have also been charged with conspiracy to commit an indictable offence in the death of Dustin Monture, Brantford court heard Thursday.
Monture, who was 27, was reportedly found on the front lawn of a Tuscarora Road home in Ohsweken on Feb. 21, 2017, with head injuries. He died at Hamilton General Hospital.
His mother, Roxanne Farmer-Monture, said Thursday that news of the additional charges brings some satisfaction, but the persistent grief of not knowing who actually pulled the trigger is crushing.
“I guess nobody knows until they’ve had to deal with this. Just knowing that there’s so many people out there. I know they know and they don’t come forward.”
Sharon Hill, who lives at the Tuscarora Road home, was also charged with accessory to murder, but not conspiracy. The 40-year-old’s three-day preliminary hearing is scheduled to start Aug. 7.
In an odd twist, her son, Darryl Shawn Hill, is named as the alleged killer in the court information detailing the three accessory and two conspiracy charges. But the 22-year-old isn’t charged with anything in the Monture case.
Jaime Stephenson, his mother’s lawyer, said last year the young man was “shocked” to be named as the alleged shooter in the court documents.
Sharon Hill and Aaron Martin are out on bail. Jeffrey Martin, no relation to Aaron, appeared in the prisoner’s box during a brief court appearance in Brantford court Thursday. He faces a series of unrelated charges.
Assistant Crown attorney William Dorsey declined to explain why the conspiracy charges had only been laid until now or how they relate to the accessory charges.
Dorsey also declined to comment on whether a murder charge was forthcoming. The Ontario Provincial Police and Six Nation Police “are doing everything they can,” he said. “They’ve worked very hard.”
Farmer-Monture, however, is critical of the police investigation, noting it was the family who took the initiative to obtain security footage at the Hagersville hospital and even hired a private investigator for a time.
“We feel we deserve some answers.” Foremost, if three are charged with accessory, why isn’t anyone charged with murder?
Monture, who had his own struggles with the law and drug addiction, frequented Sharon Hill’s Tuscarora Road home, his mother said. But her son, a father to three young children had wanted to focus on his family and cultivate his talent for Indigenous art and crafts, Farmer-Monture said.
What allegedly happened the afternoon of Feb. 21, 2017, at 31 Tuscarora Rd., near Indian Line, is puzzling.
After he was found with a head injury on the front yard, unnamed “Good Samaritans” dropped Monture off at West Haldimand Hospital, police wrote in a news release at the time. It wasn’t until he was flown to Hamilton General Hospital that doctors realized Monture had actually been shot in the head.
Brendan Neil, Aaron Martin’s lawyer, said Thursday he also finds the Crown’s accessory allegations — still without an accompanying murder charge — unusual.
“This is one of the more unique cases I’ve seen of this type . ... It’s not the standard course.”
Late last month, unrelated gun charges against Darryl Shawn Hill dating to May 2017 were stayed.