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A Saskatoon man caught with 138 fentanyl pills in his home and garage has been sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

Justice Brian Scherman accepted a joint sentencing submission from the Crown and defence after Nathan Arthur Marsland, 28, pleaded guilty to possession for the purpose of trafficking in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday. His remaining charges — including several weapons offences and possession of methamphetamine and cocaine for the purpose of trafficking — were stayed in exchange for the plea.

According to a statement of facts read in court, police were conducting surveillance on another man in late September 2015 after getting a tip indicating that he had sold fentanyl pills involved in an overdose. Police suspected the man was selling the pills with and for Marsland, federal Crown prosecutor Barrie Miller said.

After officers observed behaviour consistent with drug trafficking, members of the integrated drug unit searched a home in the 200 block of Dickey Crescent on Oct. 16, 2015, court heard. They believed Marsland and his co-accused, Tony Lawrence Ironside, were living there. Police found documentation in Marsland’s name connected to the address, along with the fentanyl pills, 3.7 grams of meth, 6.9 grams of cocaine, $875 in cash, two sawed-off firearms with ammunition and a “trafficking kit” consisting of a scale, gloves and envelopes.

All charges against Ironside — which were the same as the charges laid against Marsland — were stayed after Marsland entered his guilty plea.

At the men’s first court appearance in 2015, Ironside’s lawyer at the time said the Crown would have to prove the drugs and guns were in his client’s possession and not just in the same house where he happened to be when the search warrant was executed. On Monday, the Crown did not provide any reasons for the stay of proceedings.

Miller said the sentence Marsland received is in line with other sentences for fentanyl trafficking, considering he had no prior criminal record.

Marsland was given a remand credit of 21 months and will serve his remaining 21 months in a federal institution. Part of his sentence also prohibits him from possessing guns for 10 years.

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Mothers take up fight against fentanyl

A Saskatoon judge has sentenced a man to four years in prison for offending behaviour — including armed robberies, vile threats and violence — that is “rooted in addiction.”

Sentencing arguments were made last month for 26-year-old Cody Glenn Arthur Korsberg, who pleaded guilty to robbery, assault, breaking and entering and arson — offences he committed in Saskatoon, Lethbridge and while he was in custody at the Saskatoon Correctional Centre.

Court heard how Korsberg broke into Action Confectionary on Arlington Avenue before the store opened on April 25, 2013. A month later, he robbed a clerk at the same store while the blade of a knife poked out from his sleeve.

He was granted bail and went on to rob a man in a Lethbridge liquor store parking lot. Upon his arrest, he threatened to rape a police officer and kill his family.

During his time on remand, Korsberg punched an inmate 20 times and started a garbage can fire while refusing to comply with a lockdown.

The Crown argued for a five-year sentence to reflect the severity of Korsberg’s offences and the need to protect vulnerable workers.

Robbery is a serious crime where denunciation and deterrence are “of the utmost importance,” Judge Vanessa Monar Enweani said when outlining the aggravating factors in the case. She also mentioned the mitigating factors, such as Korsberg pleading guilty, being remorseful and having no previous criminal record, that were taken into consideration when crafting a fair sentence.

The offender was motivated to commit the robberies to fuel his drug habit, Monar Enweani noted. In arguing for a three-and-a-half year sentence, the defence highlighted many of Korsberg’s personal issues, including addictions stemming from exposure to drugs and alcohol by the age of nine and childhood domestic violence.

Korsberg also joined a gang when he was young, but recently dropped his affiliation and wants to get help for his addictions, says his lawyer. It differs from when he told a pre-sentence report writer that he didn’t need addictions treatment; when asked if he could leave negative peers behind, Korsberg replied “Once in, you can’t get out.”

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Armed robber awaits sentencing decision

Brayden Vincent Reimer cried in the prisoner’s box as he pleaded guilty to robbing a girl while armed with a machete as she walked home from a movie.

The girl was with friends on Oct. 10, 2015 when Reimer and a co-accused woman drove up to them in an alley behind the Varsity Common Sobey’s on Eighth Street, according to an agreed statement of facts presented Thursday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Reimer demanded money, got out of an SUV and approached the group with the machete. He stole the girl’s backpack and skateboard and drove away.

Police later tracked the SUV down on Wilson Crescent and conducted a high-risk traffic stop. Inside the vehicle, they found the stolen items from the street robbery and multiple items that had been reported stolen in a break and enter earlier that day.

Reimer, 20, pleaded guilty to breaking into a home in the Rosewood neighbourhood, in addition to the robbery. Court also heard he breached his release conditions when he was caught in a vehicle with his co-accused on two separate occasions in 2016.

On Thursday, Reimer was sentenced to 20 months in jail: 18 months on the robbery and one month for each of the breaches. He received a one-year concurrent sentence for the break and enter.

In proposing the sentence — a joint submission from the Crown and defence — prosecutor Rochelle Wempe said it’s at the starting range for a street-level robbery and takes into account Reimer’s young age and limited criminal record.

After his release, he will be on probation for a further 18 months with conditions that include avoiding alcohol, bars and drugs. His criminal activity went from “zero to 60” after he started using methamphetamine, defence lawyer Patrick McDougall said, adding Reimer repeatedly requested treatment while in custody, has gone through detox and rehab programs and is now drug free.

Reimer offered an apology to his victims, who were not in court. Wempe said the victims in the machete robbery declined to submit victim impact statements, indicating they no longer want to talk or think about the incident.

On the day it happened, police received multiple reports of other attempted street robberies throughout the city’s east side. Reimer was initially charged with a separate attempted robbery, as well as carrying a concealed weapon and having a weapon for a dangerous purpose, but those charges were stayed.

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His head hung low, a man accused of killing his 63-year-old mother last March sat bent over as he listened to hours of testimony at his preliminary hearing in Saskatoon this week.

On Thursday, Kyle James Zerr, 30, was committed to stand trial for second-degree murder at Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. Details presented at a preliminary hearing are banned from publication to protect the accused person’s right to a fair trial, should they elect to be tried by judge and jury.

According to police, a woman was found badly injured in a home on Balfour Street in the city’s College Park neighbourhood on March 23, 2016. She died from her injuries while in hospital.

Sources confirmed the victim was Zerr’s mother, Sandra, a dedicated nurse in Saskatoon.

“She was always up for a good laugh. An all-around great person,” said Shelby Fedorychka, one of Sandra’s co-workers.

Several of her friends and family members were in the courtroom during the three-day preliminary hearing. A trial date has not yet been scheduled.

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Saskatoon man charged with second-degree murder in city's second homicide of 2016

Watch: In a regular feature, StarPhoenix court reporter Bre McAdam talks about some of the cases that went through Saskatoon courts this week.

Instead of standing trial as planned, a Saskatoon man pleaded guilty to 20 charges involving historical child pornography, prostitution and sexual assault against 13 girls between the ages of nine and 18.

Russell Dennis Wolfe originally faced 50 charges involving 14 child victims dating back to 1997. Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli said the indictment contained 36 charges before it was replaced with the new 20-count indictment presented Monday in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Wolfe, 58, pleaded guilty to four counts of making child porn involving 10 girls between 1997 and 2010, eight counts of sexual assault against eight girls between 1997 and 2007 and four counts of obtaining the sexual services of seven girls under the age of 18 between 1997 and 2008.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing child porn and making it available to others. Those charges stem from a national investigation in 2014 that led investigators to search Wolfe’s computer devices, resulting in the discovery of other images and videos made in Saskatoon.

Wolfe was originally charged in the summer of 2014 with two counts of sexual assault and three counts of making child porn. Further investigation led to 26 additional charges in January 2015.

A year later, seven more charges were laid against Wolfe after he was arrested for breaching his release conditions. On Monday, he pleaded guilty to using a computer device twice in 2015 while out on bail.

The matter is scheduled to return to court on April 3, when the Crown and defence are expected to decide how to proceed with sentencing. Morelli said the Crown is considering making an application to have Wolfe declared a dangerous offender, which could result in an indeterminate sentence or a prison term followed by a lengthy period of supervision.

“From the defence perspective, Mr. Wolfe taking responsibility is an important step in ensuring that such an application, particularly for an indeterminate sentence, wouldn’t be likely,” defence lawyer Brian Pfefferle told reporters.

The details of the case were not presented during Wolfe’s court appearance on Monday. One of his victims sat in the courtroom’s front row, visibly shaking as he entered his pleas. She eventually left the courtroom in tears.

“The fact that we did not have to proceed to trial in this case meant saving a lot of victims from having to testify and having to recount the horrors that they had to live,” Morelli said outside court.

She thanked the Saskatoon members of the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit for their dedication.

“Without them, individuals such as Russell Wolfe would still be out on the streets. With our ICE team, we are slowly making sure that predators are going to jail,” Morelli said.

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More child pornography, sexual assault charges laid against Russell Wolfe

The home of Russell Dennis Wolfe, who pleaded guilty to numerous child pornography and sexual assault charges, was directly across from King George School.

Wolfe was originally charged in the summer of 2014 with two counts of sexual assault and three counts of making child porn. Further investigation led to 26 additional charges in January 2015.

She thanked the Saskatoon members of the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit for their dedication.

“Without them, individuals such as Russell Wolfe would still be out on the streets. With our ICE team, we are slowly making sure that predators are going to jail,” Morelli said.

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A nine-year journey through the court system for former Saskatoon Hilltops football star Adrian Jerome Charles came to an end on Tuesday when he entered a guilty plea instead of proceeding with what would have been his third trial.

Charles, 30, pleaded guilty to being in a vehicle knowing there was a loaded, prohibited handgun inside. The gun was found under the passenger side floor mat of Charles’s car during a search on Oct. 9, 2008. Police had pulled him over because he had outstanding warrants out of Ontario.

Charles testified that his passenger — who was inside a store when police arrived — later admitted the gun was his. The man denied the allegations at Charles’s trials, but Crown prosecutor Rochelle Wempe said police have been unable to locate him since.

In 2011, Charles was acquitted on weapons charges related to the loaded handgun and drug charges related to five grams of cocaine police also found in his car. A Saskatoon provincial court judge ruled RCMP failed to have the arrest warrant authorized by the court.

The Crown successfully appealed the acquittal, and Charles was ordered to stand trial a second time in 2013. He was found guilty of possessing a prohibited firearm, cocaine possession and being in a vehicle knowing there was a prohibited firearm inside and was sentenced to three years in prison — the mandatory minimum sentence at the time for possessing a loaded, prohibited gun.

Charles appealed the conviction and sentence in 2014 and was released from custody pending a decision. The Court of Appeal granted him a third trial, which was scheduled to take place in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench this month.

The Crown decided to proceed by way of summary procedure (which is used for less serious offences) on the gun charge, and made a joint submission with the defence for a six-month conditional sentence, which Justice Mona Dovell accepted.

Charles has no prior criminal record and has been “completely trouble-free” during the long court process, Wempe noted.

When he was charged, Charles was 22 years old and in his third season with the Saskatoon Hilltops. The star running back also played with the University of Regina Rams and had dreams of pursuing a professional football career that were ultimately dashed because of the charges, defence lawyer Michael Lacy said.

Now, Charles mentors youth and teaches them to play football, court heard. He also has two young daughters.

“I’m glad that I can just focus on my family now,” he said in court.

He will serve his community sentence in Ontario, where he lives. One of his conditions is to complete 100 hours of community service.

— With files from Hannah Spray

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A woman involved in a break and enter and street robbery in Saskatoon was violently coerced into participating, say both the woman’s lawyer and the Crown.

Court heard Sydney Lorie Olchoway, 19, had blood on her face when she was arrested on Oct. 10, 2015 shortly after the robberies were committed. She pleaded guilty in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench this week to breaking into a home in the Rosewood neighbourhood and having property obtained by crime after police found numerous stolen items in the back of her vehicle.

She was with Brayden Vincent Reimer when she was arrested. Reimer was sentenced on March 16 to 20 months in jail in connection to the same break and enter and for robbing a teen girl, while armed with a machete, as she walked home from a movie on Eighth Street. The two offences took place just hours apart.

Olchoway admitted being at the robberies, but said Reimer assaulted her into coming along, Crown prosecutor Rochelle Wempe told the court.

Defence lawyer Michael Owens said when his client resisted, Reimer resorted to violence. Some of the original charges “went away” because Olchoway felt “compelled to do those things,” he added.

Justice Mona Dovell accepted the Crown and defence’s joint-submission for a 12-month suspended sentence with conditions that prohibit her from using drugs.

Wempe said it’s the best sentence to address Olchoway’s drug addiction, which the Crown recognizes was the cause of her criminal behaviour. The Crown took into account that an “ongoing abusive relationship” was also an underlying cause, Wempe said.

Olchoway, an honour-roll high school student who comes from a “very good family,” became dependent on others to feed her drug addiction, Owens said. She has applied for in-house addictions treatment, is trying to get a job and wants to surround herself with better people, he told court.

Speaking to the judge, Olchoway said she has cut ties with Reimer. Her court-ordered conditions prohibit her from contacting him.

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Man sentenced for same-day machete robbery, break and enter

Warning: disturbing content

A former chief of the Yellow Quill First Nation has been sentenced to four years in prison for sexually assaulting two girls repeatedly seven years ago.

The victims, who were 10 and 12 years old at the time, were taken to a rural property where Henry Hank Neapetung would use parts of his body to touch them in a variety of sexual ways, according to a statement of facts read aloud during his sentencing hearing on Thursday.

Although there was no penile penetration, Neapetung would touch their genitals with his penis until ejaculation, Crown prosecutor John Knox said. Court heard he would often pay the girls afterwards.

In Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench this week, Neapetung pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault. The charges represent about 30 separate assaults between January 2009 and November 2010, Knox said.

Neapetung, 67, was scheduled to stand trial on six other charges: two counts of sexual interference, two counts of invitation to sexual touching and two counts each of making and possessing child pornography. Those charges were stayed in exchange for his guilty pleas.

Justice Daryl Labach accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence to impose the four-year term, but admitted initially thinking five or six years would be appropriate. While judges are not bound to accept joint submissions, the Supreme Court of Canada has stated that they should only deviate in cases where the proposed sentence “would bring the administration of justice into disrepute.”

Labach told Neapetung he violated the trust and innocence of two girls, giving them nightmares, a distrust of men and “an awful lot of hurt.”

Victim impact statements from the girls were filed in court.

“To this day, I cannot feel completely comfortable around any male figure. I feel disgusted with my own body and I’m constantly looking for any flaws that may cause people to look at me in a negative way,” one girl wrote.

“Henry has ruined my life,” wrote the other girl. “I am unable to feel comfortable around myself because every time I am naked it brings back those horrible memories from my childhood.”

Both girls also described being re-victimized through the delayed court process. The case was set for trial twice before, but didn’t proceed when Neapetung failed to show up and then lost contact with his lawyer.

Speaking in court, he apologized for the delay and apologized to the two girls, who sat in the courtroom’s front row. He wants the court to know “the journey to healing begins here,” defence lawyer Carl Swenson said.

Labach noted Neapetung was an alcoholic who got sober and improved his life long before the assaults, making this criminal behaviour all the more baffling.

As part of his sentence, Neapetung must submit a DNA sample and will be placed on the national sex offender registry.

“You will carry this label with you for the rest of your life,” Labach said.

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Watch: In a regular feature, StarPhoenix court reporter Bre McAdam talks about some of the cases that went through Saskatoon courts this week.

The night Billy Johnston died in the parking lot of the Northwoods Inn, he was involved in a confrontation that left him stabbed in the head and the heart.

Johnston had been inside a motel room with Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus, who followed him outside, pursued and stabbed him, a Crown prosecutor said during opening statements to the jury at Naistus’ second-degree murder trial on Monday in Saskatoon.

The 26-year-old is accused of fatally stabbing Johnston, 44, on April 18, 2015. Crown prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko said the case is about “getting mad and getting even.”

Carol Cote, who was at the Northwoods Inn when Johnston was stabbed, testified that drug addicts frequented the motel. She said she would sometimes use hydromorphone with Johnston and recognized his voice when she heard yelling early that morning.

A cellphone video she took from the motel’s second level shows two men facing off in the parking lot and one man, who Cote identified as Johnston, backing away. When the men come back into frame, Johnston can be seen falling down; the other man runs away.

During cross-examination by the defence, Cote said she didn’t know the identity of the second man in her video. She testified that she did not see either man holding any weapons but saw scissors on the ground when she got near Johnston’s body.

The first police officer at the scene told court the motel was the most “crime riddled” spot in Saskatoon at that time, involving mostly assault and drug-related offences.

Const. Blake Atkinson said he saw Johnston fall to the ground when he responded to a call about an injured man around 6:30 that morning. He said another man was nearby, but he did not speak to him or see what he looked like.

Atkinson said he initially noticed a stab wound on the left side of Johnston’s chest, and later saw a cut on his head after they arrived at the hospital where Johnston was pronounced dead.

The trial is scheduled for 15 days; the Crown expects to call 22 witnesses.

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A jury has heard about a dagger and sheath found just blocks away from a fatal stabbing in a Saskatoon motel parking lot.

Forensic identification officers said the items were discovered by a man on 29th Street West after Billy Johnston, 44, was stabbed in the Northwoods Inn parking lot on Idylwyld Drive.

The officers testified Tuesday at the second-degree murder trial of Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus. The 26-year-old is accused of attacking Johnston during an altercation on April 18, 2015. Johnston died from a stab wound to the chest, according to an agreed statement of facts tendered at trial.

Sgt. Mikael Ziola testified that a man said the knife had been propped up against a tree with the sheath about a metre away on the curb. The jury heard the man brought the items to the police station; the only fingerprint suitable for testing on the knife belonged to him.

Police seized the knife, which had blood on it, because it was believed to be related to the case, Sgt. Frank Parenteau testified.

This dagger, which was made an exhibit at the second-degree murder trial of Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus, was found just blocks away from where Billy Johnston was fatally stabbed in the Northwoods Inn parking lot on April 18, 2015.

Sean Rector, a security guard at the motel, testified that a “bald man” was being chased by a second man who he believed had a knife. The attacker took a swing at the bald man who then “collapsed like a tree,” Rector said.

A surveillance video shows Rector running toward an altercation between two men. One man lunges at the other, who backs away. They go out of frame and a man is then seen running back around the building.

Rector said it also looked like the bald man was holding scissors. A pair of surgical scissors were found in the parking lot near Johnston’s body and swabs were taken from blood stains on each blade, Parenteau testified.

Crime scene photos show the scissors inside a plastic exhibit bag on the ground. Defence lawyer Patrick McDougall asked Parenteau and Ziola if they knew that another officer had taken the scissors and then put them back. Ziola said he was not aware; Parenteau said another officer told him the scissors had been handled before he arrived at the crime scene.

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Jury trial begins for man accused in fatal stabbing at Northwoods Inn

A friend of Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus, the man accused of fatally stabbing Billy Johnston in the parking lot of the Northwoods Inn, says he saw Naistus and another man yelling and swinging knives at each other as they emerged from a motel room.

Naistus kept backing away as the other man tried to attack him, Kajtim Ali testified Wednesday during Naistus’s second-degree murder trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Ali said he lost sight of the men as they rounded the side of the motel. The next thing he saw was Naistus and his girlfriend running toward him and his car, he told court.

Naistus had a knife and mentioned stabbing someone, Ali told the jury. He said Naistus threatened to stab him and take his keys if he didn’t let him in the car.

Ali said he heard the car’s back window roll down as he zigzagged through a residential neighbourhood, but he didn’t see if Naistus tossed the knife out.

During cross-examination by the defence, Ali said the bald man involved in the altercation with Naistus was the aggressor. He said he did not see Naistus bothering anybody that night.

Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus (left) is on trial for the second-degree murder of Billy Johnston.

Other witnesses testified Johnston was the one being chased. A cellphone video played for the jury on Monday shows two men facing off outside the motel. One chases the other around the corner of the building, lunging at him and running away after the man falls to the ground.

The woman who took the video told court the man who fell was Johnston. She didn’t know who the other man was, she said.

The Crown showed the video to Ali, who confirmed he saw what was on the video with his own eyes.

Police found Johnston, 44, bleeding in the parking lot close to Idylwyld Drive around 6:30 a.m. on April 18, 2015. The jury heard he died from a stab wound to the chest.

Around noon that day, Reilly Forbes was leaving a home on 29th Street West, just three blocks north of the motel, when an elderly woman passing by pointed out a dagger near a tree. She picked it up and gave it to him to take inside, he testified.

Forbes said he called police as soon as he realized there was blood on the knife. He found the sheath nearby, which he picked up with a bag, and took the items to the police station, he said.

The only fingerprint suitable for testing was on the knife’s handle and belonged to Forbes, according to testimony from forensic identification officers.

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Watch: In a regular feature, StarPhoenix court reporter Bre McAdam talks about some of the cases that went through Saskatoon courts this week.

*Warning: disturbing content

For more than 10 years, Russell Dennis Wolfe befriended girls as young as nine years of age and offered them marijuana, cigarettes, alcohol and money in exchange for sex.

Wolfe would see the girls in a park or walking around Saskatoon’s King George neighbourhood, where he lived, and invite them over to play video games and watch movies. He would ply them with drugs and alcohol, then pay them to have sex, according to a statement of facts filed in court by the Crown.

The disturbing details of the abuse, which took place between 1997 and 2008, were outlined Monday during the start of Wolfe’s sentencing hearing in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

Court heard Wolfe would sometimes record the sex acts. He also took nude photos of the girls, who ranged in age from nine to 17, creating his own child pornography. Police found hundreds of images and several videos on his computer devices, featuring 14 girls who were the victims of “hands on abuse,” court heard.

Police discovered the dated images after searching Wolfe’s home during an unrelated child porn investigation in 2014. Officers recognized some unique items from Wolfe’s home in the background of the photos.

Those items were seized during a second search, when officers also found two “body casts” of one of the victims and a government poster warning about the repercussions of buying sex from children.

In order to identify the victims, police created a booklet of head shots taken from the photos found on Wolfe’s computers. They showed the photos to community members, including outreach workers and teachers, eventually identifying 11 of the victims.

Many of the girls knew each other from school. Most of them met Wolfe when they were between 11 and 13 years old; some were already working as prostitutes, court heard.

Three of the 14 victims remain unidentified. Two of Wolfe’s identified victims, who were 10 and 11 years old at the time, have since died.

An SGI photo of Russell Dennis Wolfe, taken around the time of his arrest in 2014, that was entered as a court exhibit at Wolfe’s sentencing hearing in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench on April 3, 2017.

Wolfe, 58, pleaded guilty in March to 20 child sexual assault, child porn and prostitution-related charges. He was 38 years old when he started having sex with and taking nude pictures of his first child victim in 1997. She was only 13 years old. In 2004, he started sexually assaulting her 11-year-old sister. The abuse was documented in photos and videos over four years, until the girl was 16.

Wolfe committed sex offences against nine other girls in 2001, one girl in 2002 and another girl between 2006 and 2007.

The 14th victim wasn’t discovered until police searched Wolfe’s home in November 2015 and found a USB stick hidden in a pill bottle. Wolfe had breached his release conditions by using a laptop to view the child porn that was on the device.

The USB drive contained images and videos police had not previously seen, including a video taken in 2006 of a girl between eight and 10 years old exposing her vagina in Wolfe’s home. She is one of the three unidentified victims.

An investigating officer confirmed there is no evidence that any of Wolfe’s homemade child porn was shared over the internet.

Wolfe’s sentencing hearing continues today.

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Russell Wolfe guilty plea saves 'a lot of victims from having to testify,' Crown prosecutor says

**Warning: disturbing content

Many of the 14 girls Russell Dennis Wolfe sexually abused in the early 2000s went to him seeking refuge. Instead of keeping them safe, he preyed on their vulnerabilities by giving them alcohol, drugs and money for sex.

Between 1997 and 2008, Wolfe took photos and videos of himself engaging in sex acts with children he met in his neighbourhood — some as young as nine years old.

“These girls were from our Saskatoon inner city. They went to him because they believed that he was a friend and that he would be able to provide them a safe place to be,” Crown prosecutor Lana Morelli said outside Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench on Tuesday.

“Some of them went there in hopes of a place to sleep when they had nowhere else to go.”

The first stage of Wolfe’s sentencing hearing began Monday with the Crown detailing the facts of the case. Court heard Wolfe paid his first child victim for sex in 1997, when he was 38 years old and she was 13, and continued abusing young girls for more than a decade.

Wolfe met most of his victims when they were between nine and 13 years old; in some cases, he continued having sex with them until they were 17. Police found sexual images and videos of 14 girls between the ages of nine and 17 on Wolfe’s computer devices during an unrelated child porn investigation in 2014.

The victims

Morelli read out statements submitted by some of Wolfe’s victims. They described feeling sad, gross and depressed about what happened. Court heard many of them developed addictions issues and are now on the methadone program, have lived on the streets or are involved with the criminal justice system.

One woman said her husband kicked her out when she told him about the abuse; many have no support because they are too ashamed to talk about it, Morelli said.

Wolfe’s first victim attended the entire hearing. Morelli described her struggles with alcohol and stress, which have led to health issues and a recent surgery. The woman was supposed to be using a walker but wanted to walk unassisted into court and show Wolfe what a strong woman she’s become, Morelli said.

Investigators were able to identify 11 of the 14 girls whose images were found on Wolfe’s devices. Two of them are now deceased.

Age of consent

In March, Wolfe pleaded guilty to 20 child pornography, prostitution and sexual assault charges.

None of the sexual assault charges pertain to sex he had with his victims after they turned 14, since that was the legal age of consent in Canada between 1997 and 2008. The age of consent was raised to 16 in 2008.

However, it was — and still is — a crime to make child pornography and to pay for the sexual services of anyone under 18.

The sentencing process

On Tuesday, the Crown advised it will consider making either a dangerous or long-term offender application for Wolfe.

Prosecutor Bryce Pashovitz requested an adjournment until June to allow the Crown time to compile Wolfe’s prior history in preparation for a medical assessment. If it is ordered, the Crown will decide whether to proceed with the application.

Dangerous offenders can either receive indeterminate sentences or prison terms followed by lengthy periods of supervision; long-term offenders can only receive the latter sentence.

If no long-term or dangerous offender application is made, Pashovitz said the Crown will proceed with the usual course of sentencing.

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Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus was defending himself when he stabbed Billy Johnston in the heart during an altercation in the parking lot of the Northwoods Inn, his defence lawyer told a Saskatoon jury.

Closing arguments were made on Wednesday at Naistus’s second-degree murder trial in Court of Queen’s Bench. The Crown closed its case on Tuesday after calling 22 witnesses over six days. The defence called no evidence.

During the trial, the jury heard Naistus, now 26, and Johnston, 44, were holding “bladed weapons” when they left a motel room around 6:30 a.m. on April 18, 2015.

Kajtim Ali, a friend of Naistus, testified he was just outside the room when the men emerged, yelling and holding knives. He said Naistus kept trying to walk away while the other man, who he didn’t know was Johnston, kept trying to attack Naistus.

Billy Johnston was fatally stabbed just beyond the corner of this building in the Northwoods Inn parking lot.

Crown prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko called that “Part A” of the altercation. Even if the Johnston initially was the aggressor, things changed as the two men, facing each other, moved further away, she argued.

“Part B” was captured on a cellphone video taken by Carol Cote from the motel’s second floor. Claxton-Viczko said this portion shows a large gap between the men before Naistus chases Johnston around the corner of the building towards Idylwyld Drive.

There was nothing stopping Naistus from walking away in “Part C,” when the video shows Naistus taking an “aggressive stance” before he lunges and stabs Johnston, Claxton-Viczko told the jury. That’s not self-defence, she argued.

Defence lawyer Patrick McDougall said if Naistus had turned around and walked away, the scissors Johnston is believed to have been holding would have ended up stuck in Naistus’s back.

He noted Cote described the victim as a drug addict who frequented the motel and was known to be aggressive when he was high. “Everything breaks loose” after Johnston arrives, McDougall argued, pointing to Ali’s testimony that Naistus wasn’t bothering anybody and wanted to leave earlier that morning.

Johnston had a concerning amount of drugs in his system — hydromorphone and methamphetamine — when he walked into the motel room, McDougall said. He told the jurors they will never know what happened in that room because the Crown didn’t call any witnesses who were at the party.

Johnston was slashed in the head but died from a single stab wound to the chest. His blood was on a dagger found on 29th Street West, just three blocks north of the motel, the jury heard.

Billy Johnston’s blood was on this dagger found just blocks away from where he was stabbed.

To prove second-degree murder, the Crown must show the accused had either an intent to kill or an intent to cause bodily harm that would likely cause death. Claxton-Viczko noted Naistus stabbed Johnston in the most vulnerable parts of his body.

“He didn’t strike to hurt, he struck to kill,” she said.

McDougall argued his client had no idea where he was stabbing when he was protecting himself and “trying to survive.”

In order to acquit Naistus on the basis of self-defence, the jury needs to agree he had a reasonable belief of threat, that he was protecting himself and that the stabbing was a reasonable response.

The jury is expected to begin deliberations after receiving instructions from Justice Neil Gabrielson on Thursday.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

A Saskatoon jury has found Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus guilty of second-degree murder in connection to the stabbing death of 44-year-old Billy Johnston.

Through its verdict, which came down Thursday night at Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench, the jury determined that Naistus fatally stabbed Johnston with the intent to kill him, and that it was not done in self-defence.

Around 6:30 a.m. on April 18, 2015, Naistus and Johnston faced-off in the parking lot of the Northwoods Inn on Idylwyld Drive after leaving a motel room party. Witnesses testified they were both holding some type of bladed weapon and yelling as they postured back and forth.

A cellphone video taken by a woman at the motel shows Naistus lunge at Johnston, who then falls to the ground. The jury heard that Johnston died from a stab wound to the heart.

The defence argued Naistus was acting in self-defence when he stabbed Johnston, who was high on hydromorphone and meth that morning. The woman who took the video testified she sometimes used drugs with the victim and that he was known to be aggressive when he was high.

If Naistus had walked away, he would have been the one lying dead on the ground, defence lawyer Patrick McDougall told the jury.

Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus (left) is on trial for the second-degree murder of Billy Johnston.

The Crown argued Naistus had the intention required for murder because he chased Johnston down and stabbed him in the most vulnerable part of his body. No evidence presented at the trial suggested Johnston injured Naistus before the stabbing.

The jury was given three verdict options: not guilty, not guilty of second-degree murder but guilty of manslaughter, or guilty of second-degree murder.

The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison with no parole for at least 10 years. However, a judge can choose a parole eligibility of anywhere between 10 and 25 years.

Justice Neil Gabrielson asked the jury for sentencing suggestions. After a brief break, 11 jurors came back with no opinion, while one juror suggested Naistus serve 15 years before he is eligible for parole.

Sentencing submissions on parole eligibility from the Crown and defence will be made on Monday. Until then, Naistus will remain remanded in custody.

“I’m appealing this,” he told his weeping supporters.

Johnston’s family members quietly cried out and hugged after the verdict was read. Shannon Kowtiuk, Johnston’s sister, said she’s happy that justice was served, describing her brother as a “gentle giant” from Ontario who came to Saskatoon for work and had been struggling with some issues.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Self-defence argued at Alvin Naistus murder trial in Saskatoon

Watch: In a regular feature, StarPhoenix court reporter Bre McAdam talks about some of the cases that went through Saskatoon courts this week.

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