A man charged in the fatal shooting of a 34-year-old mother of four in Saskatoon was in court Monday, exactly four years after the killing.
Joshua Petrin’s first-degree murder trial began at Saskatoon’s Court of Queen’s Bench. He’s accused in the death of Lorry Ann Santos.
Santos was shot and killed inside her home in Saskatoon’s Westview neighbourhood on Sept. 12, 2012. Police said she was gunned down by members of an Alberta gang called the “White Boy Posse,” who were trying to infiltrate the Saskatoon drug trade but hit the wrong house.
Court was shown images Monday of bullet fragments littering the house and of holes in the windows and walls. Other pictures showed two handguns seized as part of the investigation and two socks, which investigators say were filled with two magazines loaded with ammunition.
Bullets were fired from more than one direction and from more than one weapon, court heard.
Several police officers who took part in the investigation testified. One who responded to the scene recalled arriving to find Santos lying on the floor, with her family standing around her and frantically screaming.
Petrin was one of three men arrested after the shooting.
The other two were found guilty in the case in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Both were sentenced to life in prison — though one has since appealed his conviction.
Petrin’s trial is expected to wrap up within two weeks, according to defence lawyers. The trial had been delayed by about a year because of a conflict of interest with a previous defence lawyer.
