The second day of testimony is underway at the Gerald Stanley murder trial in Battleford.
Stanley is the man charged with the second degree murder of Colten Boushie, a young Indigenous man from Red Pheasant First Nation. Boushie was in a vehicle that drove onto his property on Aug. 9, 2016, when he was shot and killed.
Jan. 31’s proceedings continued with one more RCMP witness as well as the start of “civilian” testimony from those on the scene including Sheldon Stanley, Gerald’s son.
The first witness Wednesday morning was Cst. Andrew Park of the Biggar detachment of the RCMP, who was exhibit officer at the scene. Crown prosecutor Chris Browne handled the questioning, which mainly focused on exhibits from the scene.
Dustin Gillanders handled cross-examination for the defence and his questioning focused quickly on Park’s earlier attendance at the Fouhy farm about 15-20 kilometres away.
He testified a grey SUV with a flat tire had been at the scene and was reported suspicious, and also testified about an alleged break-in of a red pick-up truck at that location. He testified a stock from a gun was also found in the area.
No charges were laid in connection to what happened at the Fouhy farm.
Park also had arrested two females at the Stanley farm. He testified that when he arrested one of them, Kiora Wuttunee, she was hysterical and “couldn’t stop crying.” He believed the other woman arrested, Belinda Jackson, was intoxicated and noted a smell of alcohol.
Son of accused testifies
Following a break, the much-anticipated testimony of 28-year-old Sheldon Stanley got under way.
Bill Burge once again handled the prosecution duties for this segment.
Sheldon testified that in the afternoon, both he and Gerald were working on the fence, and his mother was mowing the grass that day.
As they worked on the fence, something happened that caught his attention. He testified that as they were “getting ready to hang the gate,” they heard a vehicle coming down the road with a really loud muffler
“It definitely got our attention,” Sheldon said on the stand.
Sheldon also confirmed that his dad did mechanical work for people in the area. The work would be done in the silver shop there. Vehicles belonging to other owners were on the property at the time to be repaired.
Sheldon then testified the SUV vehicle – which is a grey Ford Escape – pulled up beside a gold Ford. Someone jumped out, and jumped in and out of the Ford.
It looked like they were looking for something, Sheldon said. But he thought at the time it was the owner or his son coming out, and didn’t think much of it.
Then the SUV vehicle pulled up to the shop. Sheldon said he walked up the hill to the shop, and could hear the quad start.
“As soon as we heard the quad start, I started running,” Sheldon said, thinking somebody was trying to steal something.
“I could see somebody standing on the quad trying to get it to move.”
The vehicle backed up, the only way it could, beside the cab. As the car backed up Sheldon testified he went toward it and took a framing hammer and backhanded the front windshield of the vehicle.
The vehicle pulled ahead, and kicked the tail end of the car as it pulled away.
“It looked like it was leaving.”
It took a right turn where it struck the end of the blue Ford Escape on the property, and then it stopped right by the lawnmower. He said the vehicle had made a 45-degree turn into the blue Escape.
Sheldon then pointed to the vehicle and the mower on the aerial photo shown in court.
He said he only saw one person on the quad, a male wearing black clothing, who didn’t seem overly tall. This person then ran around the front and got in a passenger door.
Sheldon was standing at the time in front of the shop. When he saw the collision, Sheldon testified he took off running for the house, not knowing if the vehicle was going to leave. He ran to get his truck keys, he testified.
As he was entering the premises he heard two shots. When he came out, he heard a third gunshot.
Sheldon testified he found his father walking at the side of the grey Escape, and remembered looking into the back seat.
“That’s when I heard a third shot.”
Sheldon turned, and he saw Gerald walking back of the grey vehicle with a gun in one hand and a magazine in the other.
Sheldon said his father “turned and looked at me and looked like he was going to be sick,” and added that Gerald said, “I don’t know what happened. It just went off. I just wanted to scare them.”
Sheldon then described two individuals. One of them dropped a cell phone and then picked it up, who jogged away. One wore a windbreaker, and the other had a black T-shirt and black pants.
Sheldon also saw his mother at the front of the vehicle. She turned to him and said “call 9-1-1.”
He made “two or three” calls to 9-1-1, he said, with the first call being dropped. Eventually he got through and told them what happened.
Sheldon also described the reaction of the two female passengers. They had been in the back seat and started yelling, then dragged an individual out of the front seat.
He described the two females pulling the shooting victim Colten Boushie out of the front of the vehicle.
“His upper body torso fell out onto the gravel,” Sheldon said.
Sheldon testified he also saw a barrel of a gun come out with the driver.
“It came out with him,” he said.
After trying again to phone 9-1-1, Sheldon saw the two females start attacking his mother in front of the grey vehicle.
“They had her on the ground and were hitting her,” he said.
They finally stopped and waited in the vehicle, but soon after the two females had picked up the barrel of the gun and were “all mocking what happened, pointing at each other and saying ‘bang, bang,’” said Sheldon. They eventually went west down the road.
In the aftermath, Sheldon testified Gerald was in the shop, pacing back and forth; it wasn’t until everyone else had left that he came to the house.
“He was pacing back and forth on the deck,” Sheldon testified. Sheldon also spoke on the phone around this time to Cst. Park who was trying to find them. Afterwards, the three sat in silence at the dining room table and had a cup of coffee, until “six or seven” police cars arrived shortly after.
The mother, and then Sheldon and Gerald, came out with hands above their heads, and were placed in separate police vehicles.
Eventually, he and his mother were let go by police and they would eventually drive to the Biggar detachment.
Sheldon said he did not notice injuries to his dad from firing the gun. Usually he shoots with his right hand, he said.
Sheldon was also asked if he knew Colten Boushie. He said no, and that he never heard that name before.
Gillanders handled the cross-examination in which he focused on the Ford Escape vehicle coming up to the driveway and Sheldon smashing the windshield with a hammer.
Sheldon also reiterated he saw the grey Escape vehicle leaving “as fast as it can,” and said he didn’t chase after the vehicle. And he spoke again about the hard right turn it made into the blue Ford Escape.
Passenger testifies
The testimony of one of the occupants of the grey Ford Escape on the day Colten Boushie was shot and killed dominated the Wednesday afternoon session of the trial of Gerald Stanley in Battleford.
Eric Meechance of Red Pheasant First Nation had been called by the Crown to describe the events of that fateful Aug. 9, 2016, day.
But his testimony came under ferocious cross-examination by defence lawyer Scott Spencer, who assailed Meechance for a previous weapons conviction, for "car-shopping," and for not telling the whole story to authorities, the media and to his family. Spencer also tried to portray the group as looking to steal from Stanley’s property.
By the time Spencer turned his focus to pictures from the crime scene, a distraught Meechance could not go on.
After discussions with the Crown, Spencer said there would be no further questioning of Meechance, and court ended early for the day.
It was the most dramatic afternoon of the trial so far and a possible turning point for the case.
Up to this point, the picture painted in media interviews by Boushie friends and family about what had happened on Aug. 9, 2016, had been that the group of young Indigenous people had only been seeking help to fix a flat tire when entering the Stanley farm.
That story took major hits Wednesday as a different picture emerged: one of drinking, car-shopping, gun-shooting and other activities that until now had been subject to court-imposed publication bans.
With Crown prosecutor Bill Burge beginning the questioning, Eric Meechance confirmed that he was in a relationship with Belinda Jackson, a passenger in the vehicle that day, and also knew both Kiora Wuttunee and Colten Boushie. Both of them were in a relationship as well.
Meechance also knew Cassidy Cross, who drove the vehicle. Like the others, Meechance was from Red Pheasant First Nation.
Under Crown questioning, Meechance testified that he, Belinda, Kiora and Cassidy had been at Boushie’s grandmother’s place earlier in the day.
Four of them were drinking a 60-pound Crown Royal, he testified. Meechance had not been drinking at this point.
He noted a .22 rifle had been picked up and was used to shoot at targets in the bush at Boushie’s grandmother’s earlier that day. Meechance also testified there were casings in Kiora’s SUV vehicle.
From Colten’s grandmother’s house, the group headed to Kiora’s home. Eventually, they headed out to Maymont, in the direction of the river, to swim. The group were driving in Kiora’s grey Ford Escape SUV.
At the river, four of them were swimming but Eric testified that he stayed on the shore. He did say he had been drinking.
After finishing swimming, the group left in the Ford Escape, but there were some issues with the vehicle getting stuck in the sandbar.
Ultimately the group was able to head off. The vehicle crossed the sandbar, and headed to the road under the bridge and crossed the culvert. Soon after, Meechance said the tire started hissing.
Soon after there was a problem with the muffler and at one point they tried to break it off.
Cassidy Cross was driving the vehicle at the time and Boushie was seated in the passenger front seat. Eric was in the back seat between Kiora and Belinda.
Meechance was asked about when their vehicle entered the Fouhy farm. He testified that one of them got out to check a vehicle there. He said a friend tried to break a window.
Meechance then testified about when the vehicle entered the Stanley farm.
He said under questioning that it was Cassidy who got out and who had jumped on and off the quad at that location.
At that point, he testified he heard people yelling, “Hey, what the f–.”
Soon after, a hammer hit the windshield of the SUV, with Meechance saying the windshield broke into “a big spiderweb across.”
Wuttunee was still in the back passenger seat when the windshield was broken.
The SUV then hit the other vehicle when attempting to leave the scene; at that point, both Cassidy and himself got out of the vehicle and ran.
Meechance said he had started running away when the first shots rang out.
“I heard two shots”, Meechance testified. He also said he believed he was being shot at, saying the shots “whistled by me.”
He testified he was just across the road when he heard the third gunshot.
Meechance testified he ended up walking down the road back to the reserve and was later picked up and arrested by police.
Later, Meechance described how he learned that Colten Boushie was dead.
“I found out pretty much the worst way,” he said.
He was in custody.
“We were in North Battleford cells” at the time, he said.
He said Belinda came in first and said, “He’s gone”.
Kiora came in later and was crying.
“I just broke down in my cell,” Meechance said.
When Spencer went to work on the cross examination, he began with the drinking that went on.
“How many drinks do you think you had?” asked Spencer.
Meechance responded it was seven shots out of a bottle. They were drinking Crown Royal and “some kind of vodka.”
Spencer later showed a photo and finally was able to have Meechance admit he was drinking flavoured vodka out of a bottle.
Spencer then went over the timeline. The day started with Eric going to the band hall, with Belinda driving his truck. Meechance explained he didn’t own the truck but it was registered in his name. They then went to Boushie’s grandmother's place and around 2 p.m. left to go to the lake to go swimming.
They were shooting targets at Colten’s grandma's, and then shot some more by Kiora’s house. They were shooting ducks with a .22, “shooting out the window of the vehicle.," Spencer said.
At this point Spencer brought up the police statement on the incident: “Do you recall mentioning a gun at any point in the interview?”
Meechance responded no. Spencer suggested a reason why he hadn’t.
“You’ve been convicted of a weapons offence yourself! You had a five-year prohibition on using a gun.”
Meechance explaimed the gun wasn’t his, it was Cassidy’s.
“That’s a pretty serious piece of information that the police need,” Spencer said. “That you guys were armed.”
Spencer then zeroed in on Meechance about “checking vehicles.”
“What is checking vehicles?” asked Spencer. “Is that a service you’re providing?”
Meechance insisted they had stolen nothing.
Following a brief break, Spencer resumed his grilling of Meechance, and the exchange quickly became tense and confrontational.
Spencer asked if Meechance had done a break and enter the night before at the liquor store. Wuttunee insisted he was at his grandmother’s.
Spencer asked about Meechance’s conversations with the FSIN. They came to make sure it was handled right, he said. He also asked about his statements to the media and to the family, and asked what he told them.
“You knew what led up to it,” asked Spencer, “the checking of the vehicles and the crashing of the SUV, right? Did you tell the family you were out checking vehicles?”
No, Meechance responded. He said he told them that Colten got shot.
Things got tense as Spencer asked about whether they had deserved to know the truth about what had happened that day.
“Don’t you think they deserve to know that you were out checking out vehicles and you had a gun in there, you were shooting a gun out of the vehicle, that you drank a 60-pounder?”
But “it’s not like we went there and stole a vehicle,” said Meechance about what happened.
“But at Fouhy’s farm... that’s exactly what you were doing,” Spencer said.
“We’re not here for that. We’re here for Stanley’s farm,” Meechance responded.
Spencer asked why Meechance went to the media.
The family asked him to, he responded.
"Do you think that had anything to do with you leaving out the parts about checking out the vehicles?” was Spencer’s reaction.
Spencer then zeroed in on Meechance telling the media “you and your friends were unarmed.” Meechance insisted he was only talking about what happened at the Stanley farm, not about that whole day.
He also insisted they didn’t check the vehicles at Stanley’s farm, but then Spencer asked about firing up the quad.
“We didn’t fire up the quad,” Meechance insisted. It did not move, he insisted.
The grilling came to an abrupt end when Spencer started to show Meechance photos from the crime scene at the Ford Escape.
“Does that barrel go with the stock... that was beside the red car? And all that was the gun that you guys were shooting during the course of the day? We need a verbal response, sir.”
A rattled-looking, emotional Meechance could not go on at that point, and a break was called. A member of Victims Services was called up to tend to Meechance.
After several minutes, court reconvened. Spencer indicated he was finished with cross examination. Crown prosecutor Burge suggested it was a good time for an “early day”, and so they adjourned to 10 a.m. Thursday morning.
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