SASKATOON – One person accused of killing 16-year-old Danil Tsannie has been sentenced and two others are due back in Saskatoon court in February and March.
Erik Harvey Henricks, 26, Keshia Rose Kakakaway, 28, and Lance Littlecrow, 27, were charged with first-degree murder.
Henricks and Kakakaway were arrested in February 2022 and Littlecrow was arrested a month later.
LIttlecrow pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced in December 2022 to 11 years in prison.
Henriks is back in court on Feb. 26 for case management and Kakakway is scheduled to appear on March 7 to have her matter spoken to.
Tsannie’s body was found outside a home at 120 Avenue I North in Saskatoon around noon on April 1, 2015. Police say an autopsy confirmed that Tsannie died from a gunshot wound.
Since her son’s murder in 2015, Tsannie’s mother Claire had made several appeals asking the public for information that would lead to an arrest.
“Finally I (have) been waiting for seven years for this," Claire posted on Facebook after the arrests in 2022. “Yes it is relief finally for my son Danil. It will be rough down the road.”
Saskatoon Police said Tsannie had gone to the home with the intention of spending the night. They also said he was involved with a street gang at the time of his death and this hampered their investigation.
“Danil, at the time of his death, was involved in a gang lifestyle,” the Saskatoon Police said in a 2018 press release. “This gang lifestyle impacted the investigation in its initial stages with an unwillingness of his gang associates to come forward and speak to police.”
In a 2018 video the family provided to police pleading to the public for tips, Tsannie’s brother Jonathan said Danil had just joined a street gang when he was murdered.
“He certainly became friends with the wrong people and within a three-and-a-half month period that’s what getting into that lifestyle happened," said Jonathan Tsannie. "He was a very young vulnerable kid willing to do anything and they used him for a lot of bad crap."
Even though Tsannie became entangled in the gang lifestyle, in the video to police, his mother described him as a caring son.
“On Mother’s Day he made a card saying ‘I love you.’ A lot of good memories. I miss his smile. I miss him so much.”
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