A witness described a completely different story about the shooting of Colten Boushie when she testified at the trial of the man accused of killing him today.
Belinda Jackson was a back seat passenger in the SUV that entered Gerald Stanley’s farm yard in August of 2016.
She testified she saw an older man, armed with a gun, shoot Colten twice in the head, then fire two shots at two others who were running from the scene.
She also said Colten was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car when he was shot. Earlier testimony indicated he was in the drivers and was shot once in the head, behind his left ear.
Under cross examination, Jackson admitted her version of events today are far different from what she told police the day after the shooting.
During police interviewing she said she did not see anything or hear anything when the fatal shooting happened. In court today she said her memory was better and that she was scared and uncomfortable when she first talked to police.
Cassidy Cross was the driver of an SUV that pulled into the Stanley farmyard and he offered a different version of events earlier in the day. He told the trial that they had all been drinking and described himself as quite hammered.
He testified he first tried to break into a truck at a neighbouring property before heading to the Stanley farm. Cross says a friend tried to start an ATV at the Stanley farm when they were chased away by Gerald Stanley and his son Sheldon.
Cross says as he was running away he heard two gunshots, adding he could hear the whirl of the bullet as it passed by his head. During initial police statements, Cross said he believed the shots were fired in the air as warning shots.
Under cross-examination, Cross also admitted he changed his story from the preliminary when he said the group was not trying to steal things and that he was not drunk. Today in court, Cross admits he was quite drunk and the intent was to steal when they entered the Stanley farmyard.
Autopsy results from Boushie indicated he had a blood alcohol level of .302 at the time of his death. That is nearly four times the legal limit for driving.
Meanwhile, the uncle of Colten Boushie, Alvin Baptiste, says the prosecution is not going hard enough to try to get a conviction.
“What I’m seeing right now is, like our Crown is not pushing, he’s not really pushing and fighting,” said Baptiste. “The Crown needs to come back, and so far, it’s not happening. So far, what I see is — all is one side and how they’re painting a picture as Gerald Stanley is the victim.”
A firearms expert was the final witness of the day. Greg Williams told the trial the type of handgun used by Stanley could not be fired without pulling the trigger.
Williams also testified the casing from the bullet that struck Boushie was deformed or bulged out. He could offer no definitive explanation, but says it can sometimes happen during a delayed firing, where it takes tenths of a second for the round to fire. Williams says these are theories, speculative and are very rare.
Gerald Stanley is on trial for second degree murder. Prosecutors have only two more witnesses to call.
Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations was also in Battleford today to support the family of Colten Boushie.
(PHOTO: Gerald Stanley. Photo courtesy of Manfred Joehnck.)