Gerald Stanley looked like he was going to be sick as he stood, holding a handgun, beside the SUV in which Colten Boushie was killed, his son told court Wednesday.
“I don’t know what happened. It just went off. I just wanted to scare them,” Stanley said, according to his son, Sheldon, who took the stand at Court of Queen’s Bench in Battleford on day two of testimony in his father’s second-degree murder trial.
Sheldon, 28, told court he was helping his father, a Biggar-area farmer and mechanic, build a fence late in the afternoon Aug. 9, 2016, when he saw an SUV drive onto his parents’ property.
He said he saw someone exit the SUV before entering a parked vehicle in the yard. The parked vehicle belonged to one of Gerald Stanley’s clients, so Sheldon thought the person may have been the owner.
It wasn’t until he heard one of the SUV’s occupants start an ATV in the yard that he came to the conclusion someone was trying to steal their property, Sheldon told court.
“I realized it wasn’t somebody looking for parts. It was somebody trying to steal something,” he said.
Sheldon and his father ran toward the SUV, he said. Sheldon, who was carrying a tool belt, used a hammer to smash the vehicle’s windshield when it was trying to drive away. Gerald kicked the taillight, according to his son.
Sheldon then ran into his family’s home to grab his truck keys. He heard one gunshot just before entering the home, one inside the house and a third after exiting the home.
He said he saw the SUV’s driver-side door open and his father walking beside the vehicle before hearing the third shot.
He and his father looked at each other after the third shot. His dad was standing close to the SUV, holding a handgun and a clip.
Court heard Tuesday Boushie was shot once. The fatal shot entered behind his left ear and exited through the side of his neck.
Sheldon said his mother, Lisa, ran over to the SUV after the shooting and told him to call 911 — which he did. Two women, who were huddled in the back of the SUV, then exited the vehicle and pulled Boushie’s body out. The women also began screaming and assaulting Sheldon’s mother, he testified.
A rifle, missing a stock, fell out of the vehicle when the women pulled Boushie’s body from the SUV, Sheldon said. The women picked up the rifle at one point and began re-enacting what happened. Gerald was in the family’s shop at this point, according to Sheldon, but eventually went back into the home before police arrived. The family sat in silence, after Sheldon’s mother made a pot of coffee, as they waited for RCMP.
Two men who Sheldon said he believes were in the SUV had ran away.
Gerald Stanley, who is 56, has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder.
Court heard from Crown prosecutor Bill Burge, during the trial’s first day of evidence Tuesday, three spent gun casings found at the scene — two located outside the SUV and one found inside the vehicle, on the dash — matched a Russian-made Tokarev handgun located inside the Stanley home. Boushie’s DNA was on the gun and gun residue was found on Gerald Stanley’s hands.
Eleven guns were found inside the home — two of which were pellet guns — and a number of corroded shell casings were found on the property.
Seventeen live rounds and 11 spent gun casings were found inside the SUV, RCMP Cpl. Terry Heroux testified.
Boushie’s blood was on the rifle found on the ground near his body, according to Sgt. Jennifer Barnes, a blood-stain-pattern analyst.
Const. Andrew Park, who took the stand Wednesday prior to Sheldon, said he believes a stock found at a farm about 15 to 20 kilometres northeast of the Stanley property matches the one missing from the rifle. He told court, while on scene at the Stanley farm the day of the shooting, he received a call to the other property. Someone had reportedly attempted to break into a truck, Park testified.
Three weeks are set aside for the trial.
--- written by Kevin Menz, based on reporting from Angelina Irinici and Melanie Nagy: