Gerald Stanley has been found not guilty in connection to the shooting death of Colten Boushie from Aug. 9, 2016.
That is the verdict handed down in the trial that has taken place at Court of Queen’s Bench in Battleford.
The seven women and five men on the jury panel had been deliberating since late Thursday afternoon, shortly after Chief Justice Martel Popescul issued his charge to the jury.
The jury had three possible verdict options: guilty of second degree murder, not guilty of murder but guilty of the lesser included offence of manslaughter, or not guilty. The verdict in the case was announced shortly after 7:30 pm Friday night.
There was an immediate reaction from the Boushie family in the court room, with immediate cries of "what?" That was followed by screams from Boushie's family and shouts of "you murdered my son!" from an emotional Debbie Baptiste, directed at Stanley.
One man was heard to shout, "There is no f---ing justice, man!"
The court proceedings adjourned immediately upon the outburst of emotion from the gallery.
Outside on the courthouse steps, Boushie family and supporters shared their reaction as they called the verdict a miscarriage of justice.
“I’m pretty shocked at the verdict and my nephew has been denied justice,” said Colten Boushie’s uncle, Alvin Baptiste.
“How all First Nations are treated in the justice system is not right. A white jury came out with a not guilty verdict of Gerald Stanley who shot and killed my nephew. This is how they treat us First Nations people. It is not right. The government, Justin Trudeau, we ask you to give us Indigenous people justice.”
Jade Tootoosis, cousin of Colten Boushie, says the family will fight for an appeal.
"This has been very difficult, but we will continue to seek out justice for Colten," she told reporters.
FSIN Vice-Chief Kim Jonathan said they will be seeking an inquiry, but she called for peace.
She said all First Nations and non-First Nations "need to come together to make sure this doesn't happen anymore."
Boushie family lawyer Chris Murphy was emotional on the steps of the courthouse. He and Jonathan said they would be taking the issue to Parliament Hill.
Crown prosecutor Bill Burge did not rule out any options going forward.
“We respect their verdict. We will take a look at their verdict and we will consider our position in the near future.”
Among the things they will look at is the charge to the jury, he indicated.
“We presented all of the evidence that implicated Mr. Stanley, that was our role. We were there to present the evidence and we didn’t leave anything out that would have made a difference. There was nothing more that could be done. We put it out there, the jury made a decision and that’s their duty.”
He noted there were few rulings to review in considering an appeal. It was a very straightforward case, said Burge.
There were no comments from the Stanley family. Gerald Stanley was ushered out of the courthouse before the jury left. Lawyer Scott Spencer did not meet with reporters.
The verdict came after an almost full day for the jury in the case. The night before, the jury had requested replaying portions of the testimony from the time Sheldon had come out of the house, and from the time Gerald fired his first shot on.
The decision was made to replay the entire testimony and that continued throughout the morning and well into the afternoon.
Around 7 p.m., word circulated that a verdict had been reached and that verdict was announced a half hour later.
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