A Saskatoon teenager will never stop reliving his role in the two-vehicle collision on Circle Drive last September that killed a 70-year-old man, says the teen’s lawyer.

Just days away from his 18th birthday, Mario Isaac Ahenakew was high on Xanax when he smashed into a crane on Circle Drive near 108^th Street while changing a song on his cellphone, a Saskatoon judge heard Monday.

His airbag deployed, causing him to lose control, cross into the southbound lane and hit the oncoming air-cooled Volkswagen Beetle driven by Laverne Romanow.

Details of the Sept. 7, 2016 crash were presented in provincial court Monday after Ahenakew pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing death. He received a three-year adult penitentiary sentence — minus a remand credit of almost a year — after the judge accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence. The sentence also includes a three-year driving ban after his release from prison.

Because Ahenakew was sentenced as an adult, his name could be published following Monday’s court proceedings. His identity was previously protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was 17 years old at the time of the crash.

Defence lawyer George Combe said his client consented to being sentenced as an adult.

“It’s unusual. My client preferred to go to the adult system because he wanted to get treatment before he was released back out onto the street,” Combe said.

Judge Donna Scott indicated she will suggest that Ahenakew be transferred to a healing lodge at some point during his sentence to address his rehabilitative needs.

In an interview soon after the collision, the teen’s mother said her son was high on painkillers when he appeared in youth court on unrelated matters on the morning of the crash. She said she begged a judge to keep her son in custody.

“The man would still have his life if they would have arrested him (that morning),” the mother said, adding she felt horrible for what happened. “I’m so sorry for the other family.”

However, Crown prosecutor Bill Burge told court that an audio recording of the court appearance that morning contains no request by Ahenakew’s mother to have her son taken into custody. 

The multi-vehicle collision on Sept. 7, 2016 that killed 70-year-old Laverne Romanow. 

Burge said witnesses saw the teen slouched over in his car and foaming at the corners of his mouth just before the crash. His blood contained Xanax, a prescription drug for anxiety. Combe said his client was drinking alcohol and using the drug the night before because he had been feeling stressed out and was trying to wean himself off hydromorphone.

Combe said Ahenakew got out of his car to help Romanow, “But he didn’t have the wherewithal to do it.” The teen is deeply sorry and “wants to be punished,” he added.

“I know it was wrong,” Ahenakew said in court. “I’ll do whatever I can to try to make amends.”

Court heard Ahenakew had recently dropped his gang affiliation and, at the time of the collision was involved with STR8UP, an organization that helps people leave gangs. However, one of two breach charges to which he pleaded guilty on Monday involved contacting two gang members while he was out on bail in December. 

Ahenakew’s supporters, including his mother and STR8UP founder Father Andre Polievre, were in court for the sentencing. None of Romanow’s family members attended court, and no victim impact statements were submitted. 

Combe said Ahenakew wished he could apologize directly to the victim’s family.

A Sept. 10, 2016 obituary described Romanow as someone who “will be lovingly remembered by his family, those connected to him by blood, those by marriage, and those through the bonds of caring and friendship. The loss of his presence will be greatly felt.”

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Teen charged with causing fatal Circle Drive crash back in custody after allegedly breaching conditions
• Teen accused in fatal Circle Drive crash let out on bail
• 'Why would they let him go?' Mother of Saskatoon teen suspected in fatal Circle Drive crash begged for son to be incarcerated hours earlier
• Family of teen 'hurting' for victim and 17-year-old accused in fatal Circle Drive collision
• Teen charged with dangerous operation of motor vehicle causing death in fatal Circle Drive collision
• Victim of fatal crash on Circle Drive honoured with 'slow cruise'
• Family of teen 'hurting' for victim and 17-year-old accused in fatal Circle Drive collision

Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus, who fatally stabbed Billy Johnston during an altercation in the Northwoods Inn parking lot, should spend 14 years in prison before he is eligible for parole, the Crown argued Monday in a Saskatoon courtroom.

A jury found Naistus, 26, guilty of second-degree murder last week after a trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. Johnston died of a stab wound to the heart on April 18, 2015. 

Second-degree murder carries a mandatory minimum sentence of life in prison with no parole eligibility for 10 years. On Monday, Crown prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko argued for Naistus’s parole ineligibility to be raised to 14 years because he is a gang member with a violent criminal record. 

Court heard he previously served a penitentiary sentence for robbery, repeatedly breached court orders and was on probation at the time of the murder. 

Defence lawyer Patrick McDougall argued for the minimum parole ineligibility of 10 years to account for his client’s upbringing. He said Naistus grew up in an alcoholic home and lived in about 25 foster homes by the time he was 16. He joined a gang because he had nowhere else to go, McDougall said.

Naistus was celebrating the completion of a program at SIAST and wasn’t looking for trouble on the night of the stabbing, his lawyer said. Court heard Naistus completed programming and classes after his first prison sentence and wants to continue his education during this sentence. 

Although Johnston’s death is unfortunate, putting Naistus in prison for 14 years — a “retaliatory” sentence — won’t help him or society, McDougall argued. 

“No one deserves to die the way my brother did,” Johnston’s adopted sister, Shannon Kowtiuk, told the judge. Reading from a victim impact statement, she said Johnston struggled with addiction since he was a teenager, and hit rock-bottom when their mother died.

Johnston, who grew up in Ontario, came to Saskatoon to attend Teen Challenge, a faith-based rehab program. He was trying to become an addictions councillor but got injured at work and relapsed, Kowtiuk said.

“Even when he lived on the streets he took care of the people he was with,” she told court. Underneath his addictions, Johnston was a kind-hearted person, she said. 

Kowtiuk said she found out in 2015 that a woman gave birth to Johnston’s son. She said it breaks her heart that he will never know his father.

Justice Neil Gabrielson reserved his sentencing decision until Wednesday. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• After 6 days of testimony, a Saskatoon jury has found Alvin Naistus guilty of second-degree murder in stabbing death of Billy Johnston
• Self-defence argued at Alvin Naistus murder trial in Saskatoon
• Man who witnessed knife fight outside Northwoods Inn says victim was the aggressor
• Dagger found just blocks away from Northwoods Inn stabbing, murder trial hears
• Jury trial begins for man accused in fatal stabbing at Northwoods Inn

Warning: Disturbing content

A Saskatchewan man who received the highest sentence ever ordered in the province for child pornography offences will stand trial on more than 40 child porn charges that were laid while he was on statutory release.

In Saskatoon provincial court on Tuesday, the defence consented to commit Shane Dale Pattison to stand trial at Court of Queen’s Bench without holding a preliminary hearing. It will take some time before a date for the judge-alone trial is set.

Pattison faces 41 counts of sharing child porn between Jan. 25 and 27, 2016 and one count each of possessing and accessing child porn between Jan. 25 and March 22, 2016. The charges were laid in March 2016 after members of the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit found several prohibited electronic devices during a check of Pattison’s home.

At that time, Pattison — who is from Marshall, near Lloydminster — was on statutory release, the legally-mandated supervised parole to which most offenders are entitled after serving two-thirds of a prison sentence. He was sentenced in August 2012 to five years in prison for collecting more than 4,500 images and videos of child pornography depicting extreme sexual abuse of girls under the age of five.

The Crown prosecutor in that case, Michael Segu, described Pattison as the “worst offender” he had seen in more than a decade of prosecuting such cases. The sentencing judge, Justice Mona Dovell, said the collection of material was very troubling “due to its degree of depravity and its magnitude.” 

Pattison reached his statutory release date on Sept. 6, 2015 but was subject to six conditions while he was in the community. They included participating in psychological counselling and not being around any children unless accompanied by an approved adult. He was also prohibited from using any computers or devices with Internet access. The special release conditions were to be in place until his warrant expiry date of March 16, 2017.

There has yet to be another child pornography case in Saskatchewan in which the length of Pattison’s sentence was surpassed, although another five-year sentence was handed down in April 2013 to Darrel Donald Stupnikoff, who had a prior conviction for possessing child porn when he was caught with more than 80,000 images and videos.

— With StarPhoenix files from Hannah Spray

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Shane Pattison, while on statutory release, arrested on new child porn charges

The family of Alvin Patrick Junior Naistus sobbed and told Naistus they loved him as the 26-year-old convicted murderer was taken away to begin serving a life sentence with no chance of parole for 10 years. 

Justice Neil Gabrielson sentenced Naistus on Wednesday to serve the minimum time required for second-degree murder before he can apply for parole. 

Last week, a jury convicted Naistus of murdering 44-year-old Billy Johnston. Naistus stabbed Johnston during an altercation in the Northwoods Inn parking lot on April 18, 2015. The jury heard Johnston died almost immediately when the knife pierced his heart.

The Crown argued Naistus should serve 14 years in prison before he is eligible for parole because he is a gang member with a violent criminal record. The defence argued for the minimum parole ineligibility of 10 years to account for his client’s troubled upbringing. 

Prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko presented a prior case out of British Columbia in which a man who stabbed someone 23 times had his parole eligibility was set at 14 years. Gabrielson ruled the case is not “applicable in these circumstances” and that Naistus’s Gladue factors — systemic issues taken into account when sentencing aboriginal offenders — warrant a shorter period of parole ineligibility. 

Judges must consider three criteria when deciding an offender’s eligibility for parole: the offender’s character, the nature and circumstances of the offence and the recommendation of the jury.

Following the verdict, 11 jurors came back with no opinion on a sentence, while one recommended no chance of parole for 15 years. 

Gabrielson said he is confident the parole board “will do its job when the offender becomes eligible for parole” by not releasing offenders who “present an undue risk to society.”

Billy Johnston, 44, was fatally stabbed in the Northwoods Inn parking lot in Saskatoon on April 18, 2015.

Johnston’s sister and brother-in-law, who took part in Monday’s sentencing hearing, had to leave Saskatoon before the sentencing decision. They said Johnston, who is from Ontario, came to Saskatoon to attend rehab but relapsed after a work injury.

His sister, Shannon Kowtiuk, said Johnston was a kind-hearted “gentle giant” despite his addictions. On Monday, she expressed hope for a parole ineligibility period longer than 10 years. 

“(Naistus and Johnston) both lived tough lives growing up, but (Naistus) gets to, at some point, come back out and be with his family,” said her husband, Brad Kowtiuk.

“The toughest thing for us is that he gets to walk again. Billy never will.”

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Crown seeks parole ineligibility of 14 years for convicted killer
• After 6 days of testimony, a Saskatoon jury has found Alvin Naistus guilty of second-degree murder in stabbing death of Billy Johnston

A neurological report has been ordered to determine if the 16-year-old girl who pleaded guilty to killing baby Nikosis Jace Cantre suffers from fetal alcohol syndrome.

The report was ordered Thursday in Saskatoon youth court for the girl, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.

She pleaded guilty in October to second-degree murder in the baby’s July 3, 2016 death. A sentencing hearing has been set for two days in June, when some evidence will likely still be called even if the neurological report is not ready by then.

In March, the teen also pleaded guilty to escaping lawful custody on July 2, 2016. Court heard she left her open custody facility in Saskatoon the day before she was arrested for killing six-week-old Nikosis. Judge Marilyn Gray accepted a joint submission from the Crown and defence, sentencing the teen to 120 days in custody for the escape.

Staff saw the girl run outside and found a note by her door indicating she was homesick, court heard. The defence said she was also being teased by others on her ward.

Family and friends, including grandfather Jeff Longman, were outside Saskatoon provincial court on Oct. 12, 2016, when a teen girl pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of Nokisis Jace Cantre.

According to Saskatoon police, the teen was serving a 10-month open custody sentence at the Kilburn Hall youth facility when she ran away at 12:45 a.m. At 12:48 a.m., police were notified and an alert was issued to all cars and patrol officers, advising them to be on the lookout for her. A warrant for the teen’s arrest was issued around 2:30 a.m.

The family of Nikosis has said the teen was wandering the city streets on the morning of July 2 when family members saw her and invited her into their Waterloo Crescent home.

The girl was arrested on July 3 after family members found the injured baby in the home around 7 a.m. Nikosis subsequently died at Royal University Hospital.

Last month, Crown prosecutor Jennifer Claxton-Viczko said lawyers were still waiting on the completion of a Gladue report examining her background.

Related

• Complete coverage: Tragic death of Baby Nikosis Cantre

A man who stomped Christopher Schaan in the face and head during a vicious, unprovoked attack in Saskatoon has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for manslaughter. 

Even if Stacey Omer L’Herault didn’t intend to kill Schaan, “he was the sole active agent” in causing Schaan’s death, Justice Richard Danyliuk said during Thursday’s sentencing in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. 

L’Herault, 46, was convicted of manslaughter following a jury trial in September.  

The Crown argued he should serve a 12-year sentence for the beating that left Schaan severely brain damaged and ultimately killed him. The defence argued for eight years.

Danyliuk said he imposed a higher-end sentence to reflect the severity of the crime and the role L’Herault played in it. 

Christopher Schaan of Saskatoon died from blunt force trauma to the head after an attack on Feb. 12, 2015.

The jury accepted evidence that L’Herault was high on meth when he punched Schaan in the face after Schaan walked into the basement he shared with two other men on Feb. 12, 2015. L’Herault, a drug dealer who suspected Schaan of stealing drugs, continued punching and stomping him after he hit the ground, a witness testified at trial. 

The fact that the blows were aimed specifically at Schaan’s head and didn’t stop even when he was defenceless on the floor makes the beating a “near murder,” Crown prosecutor Michael Pilon argued.  

L’Herault let him suffer for hours without medical care and refused to take responsibility for his eventual death, Pilon said. At trial, L’Herault claimed Schaan had overdosed. 

That showed a lack of remorse, Pilon argued, even though L’Herault tearfully apologized to Schaan’s family before he was sentenced.

L’Herault is a “violent and chronic offender with an out-of-control drug addiction” that he refuses to overcome, Pilon said. He outlined the killer’s long criminal record, including a prison term for robbery during which he completed no programs and after which he showed “zero change.”

If L’Herault is unwilling to change, then the public must be protected, Danyliuk said in his decision. However, he agreed with defence lawyer George Combe that L’Herault’s prior criminal record speaks to addiction more than violence. 

Combe said his client started using drugs at the age of 13 to cope with the grief and death in his life. Schaan’s daughter, Kara Campbell, said her father came from a similar background. Reading a tribute in court that Danyliuk called “moving,” she described the heart-wrenching moment she had to take Schaan off life support on Feb. 21, 2015, eight days after the assault.

Both she and her mother Brenda stressed that Schaan was more than an addict.

“He was probably the nicest guy you’ll ever meet, really compassionate. He had a good heart,” Campbell said, adding she was happy with the 11-year sentence. 

Danyliuk gave L’Herault credit of 1.25 days for every day he spent on remand, leaving him eight and a half years to serve. At the Crown’s request, Danyliuk ordered L’Herault serve at least half his sentence, or just over four years, before he is eligible for parole, as opposed to just under three years. 

He needs to serve a substantial portion of his sentence for the “baseless, savage attack,” Danyliuk said. 

“I do not know if you will ever be able to wash that blood off your hands.”

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Christopher Schaan was free-spirited with a big heart, family says as jury reaches manslaughter verdict
• Jury hears closing arguments at Stacey L'Herault murder trial
• No one called ambulance for Christopher Schaan for five hours: witness
• Defence highlights inconsistencies from key witness at Saskatoon murder trial
• Man attacked over suspicion of stolen drugs: witness
• Victim went into coma following attack, murder trial hears
• Jury trial begins for man accused of killing Christopher Schaan

A Fallen Saints motorcycle club member sentenced to six years in prison for abducting and assaulting his ex-fiancée is on trial in Saskatoon for gun charges laid in connection with the Project Forseti investigation. 

The provincial court matter for Clint James McLaughlin, 39, is being held in Court of Queen’s Bench. Extra security was in place on Monday as Noel Harder, a fellow member of the Fallen Saints who turned police agent, testified as the Crown’s first witness. 

Harder said McLaughlin made him take guns that were stored in the attic of his garage on March 28, 2014. McLaughlin wanted to get rid of them because he was paranoid about police searching his home and couldn’t leave while on electronic monitoring, Harder said.

He testified he didn’t want the guns but felt pressured into taking them. Harder said McLaughlin’s then-girlfriend — the same woman McLaughlin viciously attacked just months later — helped load black hockey bags and cases of guns into his truck.

Court heard Harder also obtained a rifle from another man after he left McLaughlin’s house. 

Later that day, police caught Harder driving with the guns. Harder said he agreed to work with police and was released the next day without charges. He eventually became a police agent for Project Forseti, the massive drug and gun investigation targeting the Fallen Saints and Hells Angels. 

McLaughlin was charged last year with 17 firearm-related offences involving eight guns: four rifles, two shotguns and two restricted handguns. The accused was a “firearms fanatic” known for offering to stash people’s guns in a “secret storage spot” on his farm, Harder testified. 

He said he saw another Fallen Saints member bring some of the guns in question to their clubhouse. Harder said he then saw the same guns in McLaughlin’s garage when the accused invited him to go shooting. 

In a recorded phone conversation the day Harder was released from police custody, he told McLaughlin about getting arrested and wondered who would have tipped police off about the guns. At the time, he thought McLaughlin set him up, Harder testified.

At no time during the conversation did Harder mention that he got the guns from McLaughlin’s garage, defence lawyer Nicholas Stooshinoff noted.

During cross-examination, Harder admitted to calling himself a “master manipulator.” The convicted drug dealer said he returned to the drug trade in 2013, after an eight-year hiatus, because of issues with Revenue Canada. 

Stooshinoff suggested Harder continued selling and using drugs even after he became a police agent. Harder said he was involved in a methamphetamine transaction before he signed on to work with police, and only used drugs when testing product. 

He said he showed police a spot where he had stashed guns and drugs. The drugs were in a large black hockey bag, court heard. 

Harder said he would keep his drugs and guns in a bag that “could have been similar” to the one seized from his truck. 

Stooshinoff asked Harder if he had a gun safe on his acreage. Harder said yes, but testified he couldn’t recall what kinds of firearms were inside. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• New weapons charges laid in Project Forseti case

A preliminary hearing is underway in Saskatoon provincial court for Joseph ‘David’ Caissie, who is charged with murder in the 2011 death of his ex-girlfriend, Carol King.

King’s body was found in an abandoned farmyard near Herschel, Sask. on Aug. 27, 2011, three weeks after she was reported missing. Caissie, 53, was charged in July 2016 with first-degree murder and offering an indignity to a human body.

Police have not said why it took nearly five years to lay charges.

All information presented at the preliminary hearing is subject to a standard publication ban. The hearing will determine if there is enough evidence to proceed to trial.

During the missing persons investigation, police located King’s car in a slough on Aug. 10, 2011. Seventeen days later, locals found her remains six kilometres away from the site where her vehicle was recovered.

At the time, Caissie, who police questioned numerous times in connection to the investigation, said he had nothing to do with King’s death. He said he was working in Alberta when King disappeared and that he was “the fall guy.”

In an interview with the Canadian Press, he said he put a lien on King’s home, where the couple had been living just outside Herschel, after they broke up. He said it made him appear suspicious to police and King’s family.

“In this investigation, we were never able to clear Mr. Caissie,” RCMP Staff Sgt. Murray Chamberlin said after Caissie’s arrest.

Police confirmed King had a scheduled meeting with RCMP regarding an “ongoing investigation” on the day she went missing.

Caissie was denied bail in October 2016 and has been in custody since his arrest.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Carol King homicide: First-degree murder charge laid in 2011 cold case near Herschel
• Accused killer Joseph 'David' Caissie makes first court appearance in death of Carol King
• Joseph 'David' Caissie, man accused of killing Carol King, denied bail

The woman Clint James McLaughlin is in prison for kidnapping and beating in 2014 testified Tuesday at his gun trial in Saskatoon. 

From behind a witness shield, Mariana Cracogna said McLaughlin, who lived with her at the time, called Noel Harder to pick up guns from her garage on March 28, 2014. She said she opened the garage for Harder and watched him pull out two black bags that were stored in the attic. 

Cracogna said she didn’t see what was inside, other than a glimpse of what she thought were long guns in a partially-opened bag. 

At the time, McLaughlin and Harder were members of the Fallen Saints Motorcycle Club — a support club for the Hells Angels, court has heard. Police had surveillance on both men in connection with Project Forseti, a drug and gun investigation targeting biker clubs and their alleged connection to organized crime in Saskatchewan. 

After leaving Cracogna’s home, Harder was caught with eight firearms — four rifles, two shotguns and two restricted handguns — that he said came from McLaughlin. He said he offered to work with police on Project Forseti and was released the next day without charges. Harder officially signed on as a police agent in September 2014. 

The guns found in Harder’s truck form the 17 charges laid against McLaughlin. They include three counts each of unauthorized possession of a prohibited firearm, possession of stolen firearms, unauthorized transfer of a firearm and possessing firearms while prohibited to do so. 

Court heard McLaughlin was on conditions that he not be around any weapons at the time.

On Monday, Harder testified McLaughlin wanted to get rid of the guns because he was paranoid about police searching his home and couldn’t leave while on electronic monitoring. He said it was Cracogna who loaded the guns into his truck.  

On cross-examination, Cracogna said she “had no idea” there were guns in her garage until Harder came to get them. The only guns she allowed in her home were her own, she told the defence, adding she was a “stickler” for gun rules. 

Clint James McLaughlin

McLaughlin took careful precautions to ensure there were no guns or knives in their house prior to March, 28, 2014, defence lawyer Nicholas Stooshinoff said during cross-examination. He played recorded conversations in which McLaughlin told Cracogna to store her guns with a family member.

Stooshinoff suggested that if the guns in the attic belonged to Harder, McLaughlin might not have told Cracogna if Harder came to get them.

Cracogna told Stooshinoff she didn’t see any guns in Harder’s truck when he arrived at her house and that she has no memory of Harder offering to sell guns to McLaughlin.  

The accused was a “firearms fanatic” known for offering to stash people’s guns in a “secret storage spot” on his farm, Harder testified. Under cross-examination, Cracogna said she never saw firearms at McLaughlin’s farm and never heard him talk about stashing or selling guns. 

McLaughlin is currently serving a six-year sentence for abducting and viciously assaulting Cracogna in May 2014. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Project Forseti gun trial starts in Saskatoon for Clint McLaughlin
• New weapons charges laid in Project Forseti case

While Josh Walker couldn’t definitively say if a handgun that forms several charges against Clint James McLaughlin used to be his, he testified he sold a gun exactly like it to Noel Harder — not McLaughlin.

Walker, an inmate at the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, testified Thursday at McLaughlin’s weapons trial in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench. McLaughlin is charged with 17 firearm offences involving four rifles, two shotguns and two handguns found in Harder’s truck on March 28, 2014. 

The charges include possessing stolen guns, gun trafficking and unauthorized possession of prohibited guns. 

Harder testified earlier this week that McLaughlin made him take the guns from his garage because he was worried police would find them. McLaughlin testified Wednesday that the guns didn’t belong to him, but that he had seen some of them when Harder brought them over to his house, including two handguns and a rifle. 

Harder said McLaughlin got one of the handguns from Walker. On Thursday, Walker insisted he would never have done business with McLaughlin, who he called Harder’s “errand boy.”

Walker, who knew Harder from the drug trade, testified he had someone deliver the same type of handgun to Harder for $1,500. On cross-examination, he told the Crown it could have gone to McLaughlin first, but that he knew it got to Harder “100 per cent” because Harder sent a message saying how thankful he was. 

Another defence witness, Desirae Slater, said she saw two revolvers in a safe in Harder’s office sometime between February and March 2014. She described one gun as being larger than the other and both as having wooden handles.

The descriptions matched the handguns Harder said he got from McLaughlin. When Slater was shown the court exhibits, she said they looked exactly like the ones she saw at Harder’s office. 

Slater said she was doing drug deliveries for Harder at the time. Police had been watching both Harder and McLaughlin — who court heard were members of the Fallen Saints Motorcycle Club — as part of an investigation into organized crime, called Project Forseti. 

Officers arrested Harder shortly after he left McLaughlin’s house. He was released the next day without charges after offering to work as a police agent in Project Forseti. 

Defence lawyer Nicholas Stooshinoff closed his case Thursday afternoon. The Crown argued for a chance to call rebuttal evidence, including possibly re-calling Harder in response to Walker’s testimony. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Accused in weapons case Clint McLaughlin says police informant Noel Harder lied
• Ex-fiancée of Clint McLaughlin testifies at his gun trial in Saskatoon
• Project Forseti gun trial starts in Saskatoon for Clint McLaughlin

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

When Travis Miles took a beating from a group of men involved with the Fallen Saints motorcycle club in Saskatoon, the affiliate member was being punished for lying.

Once the assault was over, the “slate was wiped clean” for Miles, federal Crown prosecutor Lynn Hintz said. 

Five men were charged with participating in the activities of a criminal organization as a result of the beating. On Tuesday, Layne Joseph James Boorman admitted his involvement by pleading guilty to the charge. 

He was sentenced to one year in jail after the judge accepted the jointly-recommended sentence from the Crown and defence. 

Layne Joseph James Boorman

Hintz said through his guilty plea, Boorman admitted the Fallen Saints was a criminal organization, that he was a member of that organization and that the assault was a “disciplinary matter.”

Boorman, 27, is the second Fallen Saints member to plead guilty to a criminal organization offence. Last month, Justin Murray Smith, 34, pleaded guilty to participating in a criminal organization and recruitment to a criminal organization. 

He received a two-year sentence on each charge. It was part of an 18-year sentence Smith was given for trafficking fentanyl, heroin, cocaine and guns.

Mark Michael Nowakowski, Ryan William Hillman and Armand Leigh Hounjet are still before the court charged with participating in a criminal organization for assaulting Miles. 

The charges stem from Project Forseti, a lengthy drug and gun investigation targeting the Fallen Saints and Hells Angels that culminated in raids across Saskatoon in January 2015. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Project Forseti: Fallen Saints member Justin Smith sentenced to 18 years in prison on drugs, organized crime charges
• Read more on Project Forseti

A Saskatoon man who pleaded guilty last year to several child sex offences will have a hearing to determine if he can erase one of those pleas. 

At the same time, the Crown will request a dangerous offender assessment on the remainder of Kenneth John Bowman’s charges. 

Bowman was charged in March 2016 after members of the Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit received information that a man claiming to have previously sexually abused a child said he had immediate access to the same child for further sexual abuse. Officers arrested Bowman just outside an apartment building in the 1600 block of Main Street, where police suspected the assault took place. 

He pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a child and making child porn, administering a noxious substance in commission of a sexual assault, arranging to commit a sexual offence and aggravated sexual assault against another child. 

Bowman also pleaded guilty to two other aggravated sexual assault charges against two adults. The Crown said the aggravating factor in all three charges is that Bowman had unprotected sex without disclosing that he was HIV positive. 

In Saskatoon provincial court on Tuesday, defence lawyer Tanis Talbot requested a hearing to expunge Bowman’s guilty pleas to the aggravated sexual assault charges, telling court his viral load may have been low enough that he would not have been required to divulge his HIV status. 

Even so, Talbot agreed there is still criminal liability in the charge involving a child, and the facts would support a charge of sexual assault causing bodily harm instead. 

She indicated there have been changes in the “legal landscape” since the guilty pleas were entered. Thompson said the defence is drawing on more recent cases that interpret a 2012 Supreme Court decision in different ways. 

“There are no real Saskatchewan cases on this issue,” he said. “So there is a little bit of uncertainty in that respect, although the Crown certainly felt that the guilty plea was valid.”

Judge Doug Agnew ordered that a date be set for an expungement hearing on the aggravated sexual assault charges. Meanwhile, Thompson said the Crown plans to proceed with the first step of a dangerous offender application — a medical assessment — on the rest of Bowman’s charges once an agreed statement of facts is presented in court. 

“So many of the counts are not in dispute and even on the counts that are in dispute, the facts aren’t in dispute,” Thompson said. 

“It’s about what the consequences legally are of what he did.”

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Saskatoon man, 34, charged with making and possessing child porn, committing sexual offence against a child

For 10 years, a man charged with sexually assaulting an eight-year-old girl in Saskatoon was nowhere to be found.

Terry William McCullough had been interviewed in connection with the case in July 2005, but when police decided to lay charges the next month, he was gone.

He wasn’t located until March 2015, after a Saskatchewan-wide arrest warrant was changed to a Canada-wide warrant in 2014. He was charged with sexual assault and sexual interference and a trial was scheduled for November 2016. 

McCullough didn’t show up for court.

New trial dates were set, but defence lawyer Michael Nolin made a charter application for the charges to be stayed because of an “extensive delay” in proceeding to trial. He argued the delay should be calculated from the day the information for a charge was laid — not the day his client was arrested. 

“It would be illogical to allocate the time period where the police cannot locate an accused against the Crown,” Queen’s Bench Justice Allisen Rothery wrote in her decision dismissing the application. 

Nolin also argued that the length of time between the laying of the information in 2005 and McCullough’s arrest in 2015 deprived him of the right to a fair trial. He is unable to make “full answer and defence” because his memory has since faded, Nolin said. He argued police could have done more to find McCullough over the 10-year period, including expanding the warrant sooner and following up with his mother in Alberta. 

Court heard the investigating officer exhausted all attempts to locate McCullough — including speaking to his mother and probation services — before requesting an arrest warrant just days after realizing McCullogh had left Saskatoon.

McCullough testified at the application hearing that he left between July and August 2005 without giving anyone a forwarding address. 

Nolin argued McCullough wasn’t evading police because he had not yet been formally charged. Rothery pointed out that he knew he was under investigation, had been successfully avoiding Calgary police since 2000 for an unrelated offence and used four different aliases. 

He was also breaching a probation order when he left Saskatoon in 2005, her decision noted.

“It would bring the administration of justice into disrepute if an accused could use his breach of probation to make his location difficult for the police to trace him, then allege a Charter breach because they did not find him in a timely manner,” Rothery wrote.

After hearing the decision, McCullough pleaded guilty to sexual assault and sexual interference. The latter charge specifies that he used his mouth and hands to touch an eight year-old girl for a sexual purpose between December 2004 and June 2005. Court heard he had been renting a room in her family’s home. 

Police received the complaint in late June 2005. The victim, now an adult, was in court on Tuesday for the guilty pleas. She hugged her family members when the delay application was dismissed. 

Sentencing arguments are scheduled for May 29. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

A Saskatoon man has pleaded guilty to 40 child pornography charges related to live streaming the sexual abuse of children in Romania and the Philippines, and then sharing the images with others.

Philip Michael Chicoine, 27, entered guilty pleas Friday to 14 counts of distributing child porn, five counts of arranging to commit a sexual offence against a person under 18, seven counts of luring a person under 18, five counts of making sexually explicit material available to a person under 18 and six counts of conspiracy to commit an indictable offence.

He also pleaded guilty to possessing, accessing and making child porn. The Crown indicated it expects to withdraw 23 of the 63 charges against him at the conclusion of sentencing.

The facts of the case were not read out in Saskatoon provincial court, but police have said Chicoine offered women in Romania and the Philippines money to show him live streamed and previously-recorded videos of child pornography.

The offences happened between 2011 and 2017, according to the RCMP Internet Child Exploitation (ICE) unit. Police discovered evidence of the live streaming during a search of Chicoine’s home after he uploaded child porn to a social media account.

According to the ICE unit, three Romanian women have been sentenced in connection to the case and the child victims are now safe. However, police are still looking for victims in the Philippines as they pursue suspects in that country.

Chicoine’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 19.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Accused in digital streaming, Philip Michael Chicoine now facing 63 child pornography charges
• Saskatoon man facing multiple child porn charges after live streaming in Philippines, Romania

The question of whether a stop sign was missing at the intersection where a fatality happened near Langham last year is at the heart of a lawsuit filed by the man charged in the crash.

Robert Major is seeking $180,000 in general damages from the province. His two sons and girlfriend were killed in the crash at the intersection of Highway 16 and Range Road 3083 on Feb. 22, 2016.

Major, 33, is charged with criminal negligence and dangerous driving causing the deaths of four-year-old Brenden Major, nine-year-old Theodore Cardinal and 26-year-old Kimberly Oliverio. He pleaded not guilty and was committed to stand trial following a preliminary hearing in January.

His statement of claim alleges there was no stop sign at the intersection when Major proceeded north and collided with a semi travelling westbound along Highway 16.

Nine-year-old Theodore Cardinal (left), four-year-old Brenden Major (centre) and 26-year-old Kimberly Oliverio were killed in a crash on Highway 16 west of Langham on Feb. 22, 2016. (Facebook)

Langham’s fire chief, Bill McCombs, said the truck was going highway speed. He told The StarPhoenix the stop sign was down when he arrived at the scene and that it may have been a contributing factor in the fatal crash.

McCombs said a temporary sign was installed at the intersection of Range Road 3083 and the eastbound lanes of Highway 16 — located about 50 metres from where the truck and semi hit — sometime after the collision. 

The province “knew or ought to have known” that the intersection was unmarked at the time and “recklessly failed to maintain proper and safe signage” designating the right of way for drivers approaching the intersection, the lawsuit alleges.

The claim goes on to allege that Major’s girlfriend and sons were injured and killed as a result of the government’s negligence, which includes failing to regularly inspect and maintain the intersection. Statements of claim include allegations that have not been proven in court.

Major and the mother of his children are seeking $60,000 each for “grief and loss of the guidance, care and companionship” of their sons. Oliverio’s parents are each entitled to $30,000 for the loss of their daughter, according to the claim. 

Doug Wakabayashi, a spokesman for the Ministry of Highway and Infrastructure, said the government will not comment on matters that are before the court. A statement of defence has not yet been filed.

In an interview shortly after the crash, Wakabayashi said it wasn’t clear what happened to the permanent stop sign at the intersection or when it was knocked down. He confirmed a temporary stop sign was put up after the collision.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Man charged in crash that killed sons, girlfriend near Langham heading to trial
• Missing stop sign possible factor in fatal crash near Langham, fire chief says
• Langham rallies around family of boys killed in highway crash

A Saskatoon man originally charged with possessing fentanyl and oxycodone for the purpose of trafficking is now on probation after pleading guilty to the lesser charge of simple possession.

Court heard Eduardo Ivan Olivares, 52, had about $1,700 cash and 11 OxyContin pills in a vehicle he was driving when police arrested him near Taylor Street and Broadway Avenue on Jan. 16, 2015. A search warrant was obtained for his home, where officers found one and a half fentanyl pills. 

Police had been watching Olivares engage in drug trafficking “activities” after receiving information from several confidential sources that he was selling street fentanyl, federal Crown prosecutor Barrie Miller said in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench last month.

Defence lawyer George Combe said although someone on the street “ratted” his client out for having “fake oxys,” this was clearly a case of a fentanyl addict in possession of his own pills. He said the 11 OxyContin pills belonged to his client’s friend, who was in the passenger seat, but that Olivares knew they were in the car. 

Justice Jeff Kalmakoff sentenced Olivares to 12 months on probation — a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence — saying the sentence should focus on rehabilitation. He noted the offender’s prior criminal record — which goes back to 1987 and includes several drug-related convictions as recent as 2009 — has significant gaps and indicates a long struggle with addiction.

As part of his probation conditions, Olivares must take drug addiction programming, including in-patient treatment, as required. He is on the methadone program and has already started addressing his issues, Combe said. 

Olivares was also charged with possessing the proceeds of crime over $5,000. That charge was stayed at the conclusion of his sentencing. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Deadly pills still out there

A teen who says he was sitting beside William Joseph Paul when Paul fired a sawed-off shotgun into another car could have been passing the blame, a defence lawyer argued as a Saskatoon trial wrapped up. 

Paul’s lawyer, Kevin Hill, said the driver of the other car testified that the shooter was wearing red — the same colour the teen witness was wearing when he was arrested on March 21, 2015. 

Police officers testified the teen was in a stolen car with Paul and William Roderick Gunn when it crashed into a garage. Paul, 25, and Gunn, 22, pleaded not guilty to several charges related to the shooting and ensuing police chase. Their trial was adjourned in March for the defence to make its closing arguments; a decision has been scheduled for May 30.

The Crown’s theory is that the shooting was targeting a rival gang member, but the trial heard no evidence that Paul belonged to a gang, Hill said. He noted the witness, who can’t be named because he was sentenced as a youth in connection with the case, was affiliated with the Sask Warriors gang. 

Court heard an altercation between rival gang members in a Fairhaven neighbourhood parking lot led to the shooting. Witnesses said Gunn, an alleged gang member, followed a carload of people to the intersection of Fairlight Drive and 22nd Street, pulled into a ditch beside the car and waited for Paul to shoot before speeding off.

A woman who was in the passenger seat, Kendrea McDonnell, testified that Gunn passed Paul the shotgun.

The bullet did not fully pierce the rear passenger door and no one was hurt. Crown prosecutor Cory Bliss argued the men should still be convicted of attempting to endanger a life because the shot was fired from close range and hit just below the back window, where the passengers were likely ducking down.

Gunn’s involvement comes down to intent, defence lawyer Brent Little argued. He said his client could have pulled up to the car with the intention of threatening the people inside with the gun, noting the teen witness said the gun was used to threaten someone in the parking lot just moments before. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Men on trial for shooting car were targeting rival gang member: Crown
• Traffic shooting resulted from gang clash in parking lot, trial hears
• Man on trial fired shot at car, witness testifies

Robert Allen should get a five-year sentence for offering to arrange a cocaine deal with a police agent during “elaborate, sophisticated and clandestine” discussions over several months, according to the Crown.

The offer detailed quantity and price and included Allen taking a $5,000 cut from every kilogram sold, federal Crown prosecutor Doug Curliss said during Wednesday’s sentencing arguments in Saskatoon Court of Queen’s Bench.

No drugs or money were exchanged before Allen was arrested in Project Forseti, a lengthy drug and gun investigation targeting the Hells Angels and Fallen Saints motorcycle clubs. 

After a trial in December, Allen, a Hells Angels member, was found guilty in February of cocaine trafficking. Justice Grant Currie ruled that even if Allen didn’t intend to help get cocaine for Noel Harder, a Fallen Saints member who later became a police agent in Project Forseti, he still intended for Harder to believe the offer was real. 

If the type of drug transaction that was discussed had actually taken place, the sentence could have been in the seven- to 10-year range, Curliss argued. He said the proposed five-year sentence takes into account that the deal was a “ripoff” and that Allen was supporting an addiction.

At trial, Allen testified that Harder sold him OxyContin and fentanyl for his pain pill addiction. Defence lawyer Morris Bodnar said it was Harder who approached Allen about getting a kilogram of cocaine, and that Allen pretended to go along with the plan so that Harder would keep giving him pills. 

Harder should be the one before the court for trafficking drugs to Allen, Bodnar argued, alleging Allen was “set up” by Harder, who police recruited to prey on Allen’s addiction. 

Calling the Crown’s five-year sentence proposal “hard to believe,” Bodnar argued his client’s lack of prior criminal record, low risk to reoffend and dazzling letters of support warrant a non-jail sentence.

In the same way a sentence is supposed to deter the public from committing similar crimes, it must also “denounce the behaviour of authority for instigating this offence,” Bodnar said.

Allen addressed the court, saying he felt he was “used” by police officers who knew he was getting fentanyl from Harder. He said he got sober shortly after his arrest and his family will fall apart if he goes to jail. 

Currie reserved his sentencing decision until May 9. 

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Hells Angels member charged in Project Forseti convicted of offering to help traffic cocaine

In deciding whether Clint James McLaughlin is guilty of 17 gun charges involving prohibited, unauthorized and stolen firearms, a provincial court judge must analyze three different stories.

On March. 28, 2014, police searched Noel Harder’s truck and found nine guns. Harder later said eight of them came from McLaughlin, whose home he had left that day as police watched. Officers had been conducting surveillance on both Harder and McLaughlin, who court heard were members of the Fallen Saints Motorcycle Club. They were targets of Project Forseti, an investigation into biker clubs and organized crime. 

Harder offered to work with police on Project Forseti and was not charged with any gun offences. McLaughlin was charged in 2016. His trial was held last month and closing arguments were heard Wednesday. 

McLaughlin testified that Harder tried to sell him handguns and rifles, but he refused to buy because he was on conditions prohibiting him from having firearms. 

Harder said McLaughlin threatened him into taking the guns, and that McLaughlin’s fiancée at the time, Mariana Cracogna, moved them from her garage to his truck. 

However, Cracogna testified it was Harder who brought the guns down from the garage attic. 

The contradictory evidence from Harder and Cracogna means the Crown failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt, defence lawyer Nicholas Stooshinoff said. 

He argued Harder was a drug kingpin before he became a police agent in Project Forseti and would not have been taking orders from McLaughlin, who one witness testified was Harder’s “errand boy.” 

Harder was collecting guns as collateral for drug debts and needed to turn them into cash in order to pay for his drug supply, Stooshinoff argued. He said Harder was angry that McLaughlin refused to buy the guns and “took his revenge.”

Stooshinoff told Judge Shannon Metivier that Harder is a “pathological liar” who gave statements in a “deliberately false and manipulative fashion.” He said Cracogna would be motivated to implicate McLaughlin, who is currently serving a prison sentence for abducting and assaulting her in May 2014. 

Federal Crown prosecutor Lynn Hintz said Cracogna and Harder’s stories were essentially the same, and there was no opportunity for them to collude. 

She noted Cracogna and Harder testified that McLaughlin was a “middle man” in the Fallen Saints and stored guns for a possible biker war with the Outlaws Motorcycle Club. He couldn’t leave the house to give Harder the guns because he was on electronic monitoring, so he got Cracogna to transport the guns for him, Hintz argued. 

McLaughlin’s charges include gun trafficking, possessing stolen guns and unauthorized possession of prohibited guns. A decision is scheduled for June 9.

bmcadam@postmedia.com

twitter.com/breezybremc

Related

• Defence witness says he sold revolver involved in McLaughlin gun trial — but not to accused
• Accused in weapons case Clint McLaughlin says police informant Noel Harder lied
• Ex-fiancée of Clint McLaughlin testifies at his gun trial in Saskatoon
• Project Forseti gun trial starts in Saskatoon for Clint McLaughlin