Nanatakapo Trial Wraps Up In Big River

Nanatakapo Trial Wraps Up In Big River

Friday, November 06, 2009 at 13:43

 

 

It will be another two months before we find out whether a Big River man is guilty or not of carelessly using a firearm on Delaronde Lake.

 

Victor Nanatakapo faces one count of careless use of a firearm. He is accused of shooting in the direction of some boaters on May 18, 2008.

 

This morning, the man who reported the incident to police took the stand. Chad Musich says he was out fishing with his son and his father when he suddenly heard the crack of a rifle and a splash.

 

He said a group of people started yelling at them from the shore.

 

He testified he then hightailed it out of there, in case any more shots came that way.

 

Musich’s father, Ed, told the same story in his testimony earlier in the day.

 

However, Nanatakapo says that couldn’t have happened.

 

Representing himself with the help of an agent, Nanatakapo said he only had a shotgun with him at the time, and the Musichs’ description of the shot and the sound is all wrong.

 

He also suggested a government conspiracy is involved.

 

Nanatakapo is representing himself in the case, but has enlisted the use of an agent, Cassack Pagoota.

 

Pagoota says this case is really about how non-Aboriginal society has thrust its laws onto First Nations people.

 

“It’s not supposed to be. They’re using a dead law here, a dead language. But they force it, and that’s wrong. They want to have jurisdiction, because they know we have jurisdiction,” Pagoota says.

 

Judge Gerald Morin’s decision is expected in January.