The son of Gerald Stanley — the farmer accused of killing 22-year-old Cree man Colten Boushie — is expected to testify during his father's trial Wednesday.
The elder Stanley, 56, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of Colten Boushie. His trial began Tuesday in Battleford, Sask.
According to a brief and thinly sketched overview offered by Crown prosecutor Bill Burge, father and son were building a fence on their Biggar-area cattle farm on Aug. 9, 2016, when an SUV noisily rambled onto the property.
Stanley and his son were building a fence on the Stanley farm property before Boushie was shot. (CBC)
Burge says Boushie was in the Ford Escape when he was shot, while two women were in the back seat and two other men had fled from the SUV on foot.
Son heard 3 shots
Stanley's son Sheldon heard two gunshots when he entered the farmhouse to fetch his truck keys, and another shot when exiting the home, Burge told the 12 jurors Tuesday.
Sheldon Stanley saw his father standing by the driver's-side door with a gun in his hand after the third shot, and Boushie slumped toward the steering wheel, Burge added.
Sheldon Stanley's testimony will come after that of Const. Andrew Park, a Biggar RCMP officer.
RCMP under fire
On Tuesday, Scott Spencer, Stanley's defence lawyer, castigated the first two witnesses in the Crown's case — both RCMP officers involved in the investigation — for their handling and analysis of evidence.
The first witness, Cpl. Terry Heroux, said he did not order a comprehensive blood splatter analysis of the blood found in the SUV.
Heroux also said he did not know where the SUV ended up after it was towed away from the RCMP's exam bay. Spencer said that stripped him of his ability to order an independent analysis of the car.
While two bullet casings matching a gun registered to Stanley were found on the yard, the bullet that killed Boushie was not recovered from the scene, Heroux said.
Followup witness Sgt. Jennifer Barnes, a blood splatter expert, said she did not visit the scene and only examined photos of the blood splatter inside the car several months after the shooting.
Sgt. Jennifer Barnes of the RCMP explains blood splatter patterns to jurors on Tuesday. (Cloudesley Rook-Hobbs)
She said blood spatter on a loaded rifle barrel — found by the RCMP outside the car beside Boushie's body — suggests the rifle may have been inside the car, by the driver's side foot area, at the time the gun that killed Boushie went off.
With eight Crown witnesses (including Park and Sheldon Stanley) yet to testify, and Spencer still to present his opening argument and witnesses, the trial is expected to last until Feb. 15.
The trial is taking place in the Battleford Court of Queen's Bench courthouse. (Guy Quenneville/CBC)
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