During a lengthy videotaped statement provided to police two months after the October 2016 death of Ryan Daniel Sugar, Colinda Lee Hotomani wavered between laughter and tears.

When asked about the incident itself, she acknowledged punching Sugar and said she encouraged a man she identified as “G” in his own assault on the man. But she insisted Sugar was alive when they left.

“The reason I don’t take it so hard is because the last time I seen him, he was alive,” she told Regina Police Service Sgt. Rob Collins.

The first part of the five-hour statement was played at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday for the jury hearing the first-degree murder trial for Hotomani and Gregory James Wolfe. Hotomani, 36, and Wolfe, 26, are accused of killing 31-year-old Sugar between Oct. 4 and 5, 2016.

Court previously heard Sugar died from smoke inhalation. When his body was found in the back bedroom of a house at 1555 McTavish St. a few days later, he also had a variety of injuries on his body.

1555 McTavish Street on Oct. 11, 2016.

The jury heard testimony last week from Jessica Pangman, who also faces a murder charge. Pangman told the court Wolfe and Hotomani — her aunt — assaulted Sugar, with Wolfe inflicting a number of wounds with a blade. She said once Sugar backed into the bathroom, Wolfe and Hotomani lit a fire outside the bathroom door.

Pangman said Sugar was still alive and had made it into the back bedroom by the time she, Hotomani and Wolfe left the smoky house.

During Hotomani’s statement from Dec. 9, 2016, Collins told the woman she had been implicated by Pangman, who was questioned earlier that day.

The interview touched on topics like growing up in Winnipeg, Hotomani’s once-desire to go into the Army or police work, her passion for auto mechanics, and her struggles with drug use.

Initially conversational, Hotomani frequently interspersed her replies to Collins with relaxed laughter.

Over time, with questions from Collins becoming increasingly focused on the incident itself, the mood in the interview room began to change, with Hotomani sometimes becoming emotional.

Ryan Daniel Sugar, whose body was found in a burnt-out house in Regina on Oct. 11, 2016. Murder charges were subsequently laid in his death.

Hotomani said she’d been going through “a lot of headaches” over what had happened, adding that, “I’m trying to protect someone and they just don’t see it.”

Pangman had testified the attack on Sugar happened after her aunt told her the man had sexually assaulted the two women while they were sleeping — a claim Pangman said she is no longer so sure of.

In her statement, Hotomani initially suggested it was Pangman who’d been “freaking out” and reporting she’d been assaulted. Hotomani later told Collins she’d woken up to Sugar “pulling on my clothes,” then found Pangman naked in her room.

Hotomani said she was angry but that Sugar denied her accusation that he was “a hound.” She said “G” went with Sugar into the bathroom to confront him about the claims.

She told Collins the drinking — and ultimately the arguing — between the group continued for a while, eventually leading to “G” cutting Sugar, and Hotomani punching him.

She described “G” trying to light a fire, but said Sugar was still alive when they left the house.

The jury will watch the rest of the interview on Tuesday.

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Accused of a multi-million-dollar fraud, former Regina busineswoman Alena Marie Pastuch now has herself as client and “lawyer” in a long-awaited trial, slated to start next month.

After denying her request Monday for a third, state-funded lawyer, Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Richard Elson said he “may have been somewhat hasty” in saying last week that her trial would begin the very next day if he rejected her application.

“I am satisfied that she has some concerns, some mental concerns … and that she is going to require some support in order to represent herself at trial,” he said. She needs time to enlist the support of friends and associates to prepare and present her case, he added.

Setting a new trial date of Oct. 15, Elson said it was “with some reluctance, but recognizing that it is important that there be some fairness accorded to the accused.”

When Elson asked earlier in the day how soon she could go trial if she had to do it without a lawyer, Pastuch, 53, insisted she simply couldn’t defend herself. “I don’t think I’d ever be ready,” she said.

The case dates back to June 2014, when Pastuch was charged with fraud exceeding $5,000, theft exceeding $5,000 and money laundering. Pastuch, who headed several companies that focused on creating anti-fraud and child protection computer software, is accused of misappropriating approximately $5 million in investors’ money between April 1, 2006 and Jan. 1, 2013.

Crown prosecutor Dana Brule insisted it’s time to go to trial, citing the four years that have passed since she was charged, the age of some of the offences, and the deaths of two witnesses already.

“With all due respect, she has had four years to prepare,” he said.

The Crown is expected to call some 80 witnesses in a trial, slated to run roughly 2 1/2 months. “This is not the most complicated of cases in the world,” Brule said, adding it will, however, be his longest.

Elson reviewed Pastuch’s history with counsel, first hiring her own lawyer, then using publicly funded Legal Aid counsel. When Legal Aid withdrew, she got her first court-appointed lawyer, paid for through the Justice Ministry. After that lawyer withdrew last year, she got a second court appointment. That lawyer withdrew just last week as the trial was to begin. Both those lawyers cited a breakdown in the solicitor-client relationship.

“Knowing the appointment of another court-appointed counsel will delay this trial well beyond reasonable limits, the accused’s application is dismissed,” said Elson.

He noted that, according to an affidavit, the Justice Ministry’s court services branch went to great lengths to hire the second lawyer — who was based in Calgary and Pastuch’s first choice — and paid him a “substantial” sum. Government lawyer Audrey Olson said the lawyer had explained he essentially had to shut down his office to handle Pastuch’s case.

Pastuch accepted only limited fault in the breakdowns — “I’m not perfect and there’s times I get emotional” — and criticized the conduct of both counsel. Elson noted he had no such evidence before the court, although her comments did cause him concern.

He said a client is expected to maintain a reasonable, working relationship with counsel, and if the person can’t, there are consequences.

“The simple question is whether or not the court can comfortably expect that a third appointment will not fail for similar or near-similar reasons as the two previous failures,” Elson said.

Pastuch had sought to have Monday’s proceedings heard behind closed doors, but Elson denied the application. He did, however, accept and seal a document outlining what Pastuch repeatedly referred to as her “medical disability.”

Rebecca Rackow, a social worker who locally does advocacy and research work with Canadian Mental Health Services, told court she’d reviewed the information, and recommended Pastuch have a lawyer “in order to preserve her mental health.” Elson said there was no case law to suggest counsel is appointed for that reason.

After Elson’s rulings, Pastuch immediately launched into an argument over disclosure of documents needed for her defence.

bpacholik@postmedia.com  

With the jury having heard the rest of Colinda Lee Hotomani’s videotaped statement to police, the Crown closed its case against the 36-year-old woman and her co-accused, 26-year-old Gregory James Wolfe.

On Tuesday, at the conclusion of the five-hour-long statement, Crown prosecutor Adam Breker advised the jury they would not be hearing any more evidence from the Crown during the first-degree murder trial for the pair.

The jury was sent home with instructions to return on Wednesday morning, when it’s expected they will learn whether defence lawyers for Hotomani and Wolfe — Greg Wilson and Mervyn Shaw respectively — intend on calling any evidence on their clients’ behalf.

Ryan Daniel Sugar, whose body was found in a burnt-out house in Regina on Oct. 11, 2016. Murder charges were subsequently laid in his death.

Hotomani and Wolfe are accused of causing the death of 31-year-old Ryan Daniel Sugar between Oct. 4 and 5, 2016. Court heard Sugar suffered a variety of non-fatal injuries — including a number of slash wounds — before ultimately dying of smoke inhalation in a house fire at 1555 McTavish St.

During the past two weeks, court heard evidence from a number of Crown witnesses, including members of the Regina Police Service and Regina Fire & Protective Services, as well as several civilians.

Among witnesses was a third accused, Jessica Pangman, who testified Hotomani and Wolfe participated in an assault on Sugar, and then started a fire in the small hallway connecting the home’s bathroom and the back bedroom where Sugar’s body was found on Oct. 11, 2016. Pangman told the court Wolfe used a large television to try to block Sugar into the bathroom while the fire was lit. Pangman said when Wolfe was unable to light a fire using oven cleaner, Hotomani retrieved a bottle of lice treatment which successfully acted as an accelerant.

Court also heard from several witnesses who claimed to have overheard, or been told directly, about Wolfe’s and Hotomani’s roles in the assault and fire.

On Monday, the jury began hearing from Hotomani herself, through a lengthy statement she provided to members of the Regina Police Service.

Arrested in December 2016, Hotomani told Sgt. Rob Collins she punched Sugar twice, but otherwise didn’t play a direct role in the assault on him.

“He did it all, man,” she told the investigator while speaking about a man she identified as “G.” “He cut him more than once … He’s probably going to try to blame it on me or Jessie.”

While she initially pinned the fire squarely on “G,” she later told Collins she went into one of the kitchen cupboards to get the bottle — she thought it might have been glue — ultimately used to help start the fire.

1555 McTavish Street on Oct. 11, 2016.

Referring to a diagram of the house provided by Collins, Hotomani pointed to the spot where she said she got the “glue.”

She said she, Pangman and “G” left once the fire started, but insisted — as Pangman had — that Sugar was alive when they left the house.

Hotomani, whose statement was frequently punctuated with relaxed-sounding laughter, was in tears by the end, insisting to a skeptical Collins she was telling the truth.

“I’m not about to go down for a f*** murder I didn’t do,” she told him.

She denied “opening up” to anyone about the incident in the days that followed.

hpolischuk@postmedia.com

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Defence lawyers for Colinda Lee Hotomani and Gregory James Wolfe told a Regina Court of Queen’s Bench jury neither of their clients intend on calling evidence at their first-degree murder trial.

Hotomani, 36, and Wolfe, 26, are accused in the Oct. 4-5, 2016 death of 31-year-old Ryan Daniel Sugar, who court heard died of smoke inhalation during a house fire at 1555 McTavish St.

Ryan Daniel Sugar, whose body was found in a burnt-out house in Regina on Oct. 11, 2016. Murder charges were subsequently laid in his death.

On Tuesday, Crown prosecutor Adam Breker closed his case once the jury finished watching Hotomani’s videotaped police statement from December 2016.

At that point, the jury was sent home and asked to return Wednesday morning, when they were to find out whether they would hear any defence evidence. On Wednesday, defence lawyers for Hotomani and Wolfe — Greg Wilson and Mervyn Shaw respectively — told the jury their clients had instructed them not to call evidence.

The jury was then asked to return on Monday morning, when Crown and defence counsel are expected to give their closing addresses. Once those arguments are done, Justice Janet McMurtry will begin delivering her charge.

McMurtry told jurors she expects to complete her instructions on Tuesday, following which the jury will begin deliberations.

During the trial, court heard from a variety of Crown witnesses, including co-accused Jessica Pangman, who testified both Hotomani and Wolfe played a part in an assault on Sugar and in lighting a fire outside the home’s bathroom door. Pangman told the court Wolfe pushed a large television into that area as well, as a way to try to block Sugar inside the bathroom.

Other witnesses testified Hotomani and Wolfe each later admitted to taking part in the incident.

Both Pangman and Hotomani — the latter during her police statement — said Sugar was still alive when they left the house.

Court heard Sugar’s body was found on Oct. 11, 2016 in the home’s back bedroom.

hpolischuk@postmedia.com

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Having herself once been the victim of sexual abuse by her stepfather, a Saskatchewan woman later allowed the same thing to happen to her own daughter.

The 47-year-old woman — who can’t be named because of a court-imposed publication ban protecting the identity of the complainant — pleaded guilty to a charge of a parent or guardian procuring sexual activity, as well as a failure to appear in court. She appeared at Regina Provincial Court on Wednesday, when Judge Leslie Halliday listened to sentencing arguments from Crown and defence counsel.

Defence lawyer Tyne Hagey said her client endured residential school and the foster care system, and suffered through sexual abuse at the hands of her stepfather. Past traumas led to substance abuse issues, which plagued her around the time of the offences against her daughter in 2008.

“This is a case of extreme neglect and of a parent who didn’t step up to bat when she needed to protect her child,” Hagey said of her client.

But, Hagey added, this case doesn’t bear the hallmarks of other procurement cases, in which a parent or guardian uses a child as a means of getting money or some other benefit.

Crown prosecutor Leona Andrews said the incidents first came to light in March of 2011 when the girl came forward to report what had happened three years earlier when she was 14.

Court heard the girl had moved into the Fort Qu’Appelle-area home shared by her mother and her longtime common-law husband. The girl described the home as one in which partying and marijuana use was common.

It was in early 2008, the girl said, that her stepfather shared some marijuana with her. Afterward, while her mother was asleep, the man had sex with the girl. The girl reported that midway through, her mother walked in.

Andrews told the court the mother went to the girl the next day, telling her that her stepfather wanted to see her. The girl expected an apology. Instead, she found her stepfather naked. Once again, he had sex with her.

Court heard the abuse continued for several months, the girl reporting it happened almost daily, save the days when someone besides her mother and stepfather was at the house.

Eventually, the girl became pregnant. DNA testing would reveal the father to be the girl’s mother’s common-law.

The man remains before the court with his own charges.

Hagey said the relationship between the mother and her common-law husband ended a year or two later. She said mother and daughter now have a “complicated” but generally positive relationship, and that the mother acts as a grandmother to her daughter’s child.

Andrews noted sentencing needs to fall within the range that existed in 2008, when the minimum sentence for this offence was 45 days in jail, and the maximum was two years. Andrews asked for 18 months.

Hagey, noting her client has been working to confront her problems, stressed rehabilitation and asked for the minimum jail term, to be followed by a term of probation.

Halliday reserved her decision. The date for sentencing has not yet been set.

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SWIFT CURRENT — A woman has pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of a man in the Swift Current area.

Rebecca Kuhlman had been charged with second-degree murder in the 2016 death of 21-year-old Logan Ring.

She pleaded guilty to the lesser charge and has been sentenced to eight years in prison.

Ring’s body was discovered in November 2016 in Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park north of Swift Current.

Four others still face second-degree murder charges in Ring’s death including Colin Perrault, Todd Donaldson, Jolene Epp, and Tanisha Perrault.

Facts in the Kuhlman case are being withheld pending the outcomes of the cases.

Related

• Two accused in death of Logan Ring case granted bail
• Two more facing charges related to death of Logan Ring
• 'He was my light': Logan Ring remembered as endlessly generous

A long, simmering grudge over a loved one’s suicide carried Christopher Matthew Brass to the back door of a Regina house.

Inside a bedroom there later that same morning, 51-year-old Daniel DiPaolo was found facedown, dead from a bullet to the head.

Several people were subsequently arrested and charged and one of them — 36-year-old Brass — pleaded guilty Thursday to first-degree murder. He received the mandatory life sentence with no parole eligibility for 25 years.

Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Lana Krogan told Brass — who appears to have two devil-type horns tattooed on his forehead — she hopes he uses the time in prison to consider how he ended up here, and what changes he needs to make.

“(Murder) is the ultimate deprivation,” she said. “It is the extinguishment of all Mr. DiPaolo was, and all he had yet to be.”

When charged in the DiPaolo killing, Brass was already in custody in Winnipeg on charges in two homicides from that city.

Crown prosecutor James Fitz-Gerald, who handled the case with co-Crown Leona Andrews, told the court DiPaolo had once been in a relationship with Brass’s mother.

Seven years before the murder, Brass’s mother took her own life by using an electrical extension cord, court heard. Brass felt DiPaolo bore some responsibility for the death, Fitz-Gerald said.

Early on the morning of April 29, 2017, Brass and a group of others turned up at DiPaolo’s home on the 700 block of Garnet Street. Arriving in two vehicles stolen from Winnipeg, they brought with them a Simonov SKS rifle.

Fitz-Gerald said they discussed how to get into the house, as Brass didn’t believe his mother’s former partner would admit them. But, when the group went up to the door, they found it unlocked.

Toting the rifle, Brass and three others went inside, finding DiPaolo in bed.

Daniel Richard DiPaolo, 51, was found dead after police were called to a home in the 700 block of Garnet Street on April 29, 2017.

Fitz-Gerald said it wasn’t clear precisely when the violence started or what specifically sparked it, but court heard how one co-accused described Brass as moving behind DiPaolo and using a buck knife to stab him in the face, below the eye. After that, Brass — with help from two others — wrapped an extension cord around DiPaolo’s throat and strangled the man.

“It’s clear, my Lady, that Mr. Brass thought Mr. DiPaolo was deceased after the pulling on the extension cord around Mr. DiPaolo’s neck,” Fitz-Gerald said.

The group pilfered things from the house during the course of the incident. The last of the four to leave heard a noise from the man they believed dead, Fitz-Gerald said. That information was relayed to the others waiting outside, so Brass and a second man re-entered with the rifle.

A pop was heard coming from inside the house.

“After Mr. Brass and the other individual re-entered the house with the Simonov SKS rifle, Mr, Brass used the rifle to shoot Mr. DiPaolo in the back of the head from close range,” Fitz-Gerald said.

The gunshot wound proved fatal.

Brass and some of the others stole a vehicle and headed back to Winnipeg, where he was arrested on May 2, 2017.

Members of DiPaolo’s family were present in court Thursday, but only his spouse Crystal Fox felt up to providing a victim impact statement.

Facing Brass, she read from her brief statement: “I feel cheated. My husband did not deserve that.”

Brass’s defence lawyer Jeff Deagle provided only brief submissions, telling the court his client asked him to keep it short. Deagle said Brass, who spent most of his youth in the foster care system, wanted to take responsibility for what he’d done.

When asked by Justice Krogan if he had anything to add, Brass tersely replied, “I have nothing to say.”

While members of DiPaolo’s family did not wish to speak after court, family members previously described him as kind, a hard worker and a man who enjoyed time with his loved ones.

Edward Genaille, Johnathen Edward Kakewash and Malcolm Mitchell were also charged, and are still before the court.

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Sitting in the witness box, Jocelynn McKay remained tightlipped when questioned about the events of Oct. 23, 2017, the date she and Lyall Marlin Anaquod exited a Regina house amid a barrage of tear gas.

She had proven more descriptive during a videotaped police interview the day after the incident — a recording played on Friday during 43-year-old Anaquod’s trial at Regina Provincial Court.

The trial began earlier this year, but had to be adjourned several times, with one of the issues being an inability to locate McKay. As she is alleged to be the only other person in the house at the time of the incident, she is considered a key Crown witness.

Numerous attempts by police to locate her resulted a few weeks ago in her arrest, and she’s been in custody since. On Friday, she was brought to court to testify at the continuation of Anaquod’s trial on charges that include pointing and discharging a firearm during a tense standoff at 1152 Elphinstone St. Anaquod is accused of taking a series of shots during the standoff, including in the direction of Regina Police Service officers.

Despite the statement provided to RPS Const. Brittany Dunford, McKay’s Friday testimony was peppered with answers like “I don’t know” and “I don’t remember,” although she told the court she recalled police officers at the house and being teargassed.

Crown prosecutor Chris White played the approximately 1½-hour-long videotaped statement, in which McKay answered questions in significantly more detail.

Bundled in a blanket and at times speaking from behind it, McKay told Dunford she’d gone to the Elphinstone Street house with Anaquod and another man, said to have left later. McKay said the men unloaded items from a truck, including some generators, and that police showed up later that morning.

“Then all hell broke loose,” she said.

Members of the Regina Police Service and members of their SWAT team surrounded a home on the 1100 block of Elphinstone Street in Regina.

She told Dunford that during the hours-long standoff, Anaquod blocked the windows and wouldn’t let her leave. She said Anaquod had a number of guns and a significant amount of ammunition, and made comments that made her anxious.

“I’m not going back to jail,” he is alleged to have said. “Either I’m going for life or they’re going to kill me.”

McKay said he also made threats directly to police, once reacting to the repeated tossing of tear gas by allegedly stating, “If you throw another one of those things, I’m going to shoot one of you guys in the face.”

She also told Dunford she witnessed Anaquod shooting out the window — an observation she denied making while on the stand Friday.

McKay acknowledged it was her in the video, but she claimed to have no memory of the interview, saying she was “tired” that day.

Judge Dennis Fenwick warned McKay it was her duty to tell the truth on the stand but, when the same type of vague answers continued, White made an application to have the videotaped statement entered as evidence at trial.

As part of that application, Dunford was called to testify. She said McKay was initially tired, but was also lucid, sober and coherent during the interview.

The trial is expected to wrap up next week, including with cross-examination of McKay.

hpolischuk@postmedia.com

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Crown prosecutor Adam Breker urged a Regina Court of Queen’s Bench jury to rely on common sense to see their way to verdicts of first-degree murder in the case against two people accused of killing Ryan Daniel Sugar.

But defence lawyers for Colinda Lee Hotomani, 36, and Gregory James Wolfe, 26 — Greg Wilson and Mervyn Shaw respectively — suggested common sense might lead the jury in an entirely different direction from the one laid out by the Crown.

Lawyers provided jurors with closing arguments on the case Monday, approximately three weeks after the trial began.

Jurors heard evidence about a house fire from Oct. 4-5, 2016 that led to Sugar’s death. The body of the 31-year-old was found on Oct. 11, 2016, in the back bedroom of 1555 McTavish St.

1555 McTavish Street on Oct. 11, 2016.

Hotomani, Wolfe and Jessica Pangman were later charged with murder.

Pangman was among witnesses at the trial, and Breker suggested her evidence — as well as that of other Crown witnesses — was credible and corroborated by other testimony and physical evidence from the scene.

Pangman told the court Sugar was assaulted by Hotomani and Wolfe, and then backed into the bathroom while the pair set fire to a pillow outside the bathroom door. She said Wolfe used a large TV as a barricade, and that the three fled while Sugar called for help.

“They blocked a man into a smoke-filled house and left him to die,” Breker told jurors, calling the homicide a “cold, calculated and brutal act.”

Sugar died from smoke inhalation, court heard.

Ryan Daniel Sugar, whose body was found in a burnt-out house in Regina on Oct. 11, 2016. Murder charges were subsequently laid in his death.

Breker argued the Crown’s case is strengthened by other witnesses, including people who testified Hotomani and Wolfe admitted to their roles.

But Wilson and Shaw argued the evidence should lead the jury to other verdicts: manslaughter in Wolfe’s case and not guilty in Hotomani’s.

Shaw told jurors he wasn’t there to “pull rabbits out of hats,” stating the evidence indeed shows Wolfe played a role in the homicide. But Shaw argued the evidence doesn’t prove his client intended Sugar’s death.

He urged jurors to disbelieve evidence of key Crown witnesses, calling one a “liar,” and suggesting another — Pangman — has a lot to gain by testifying as she did, given her own outstanding charge.

Shaw suggested his client was too intoxicated to form the intent for murder — an argument with which Wilson agreed when it came to Hotomani.

But there was also finger-pointing between the two defence lawyers, each suggesting the other’s client was the more involved.

In Wilson’s case, he claimed evidence suggests the possibility of a second fire — one that would then have been started by Wolfe acting alone. Referring to testimony Wolfe remained in the house briefly after Hotomani and Pangman left, Wilson said there was opportunity for Wolfe to set a stronger fire beyond the one in which Hotomani was said to have aided.

“Colinda Hotomani is no saint …,” he said. “She did some bad things that night. She did not kill Ryan Sugar.”

Wilson additionally fell back on the defence of provocation, arguing the incident ensued as the result of an accusation Sugar had sexually assaulted the two women.

Breker refuted defence claims, arguing there is no evidence of a second fire, and that the actions of the two accused before, during and after the incident suggest they were not so drunk as to render them incapable of making decisions. Breker further argued the provocation defence does not apply, given the amount of time that passed between the sex assault accusations and the lighting of the fatal fire.

Justice Janet McMurtry began charging the jury on Monday afternoon and will finish her instructions Tuesday. The jury will then start deliberating the case.

hpolischuk@postmedia.com

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The case against Colinda Lee Hotomani and Gregory James Wolfe, accused in the fire-related death of 31-year-old Ryan Daniel Sugar, is now in a jury’s hands.

Hotomani, 36, and Wolfe, 26, are accused in the Oct. 4-5, 2016 homicide, alleged to have occurred in a deliberately set house fire at 1555 McTavish St. Court heard Sugar died of carbon monoxide poisoning from smoke inhalation.

1555 McTavish Street on Oct. 11, 2016.

Regina Court of Queen’s Bench Justice Janet McMurtry completed her instructions to the jury on Tuesday, following which the original 14-person jury was whittled down to the 12 needed for deliberations.

The jury began deliberating shortly before 2 p.m. Tuesday.

During her charge to the jury, McMurtry detailed rules of law and the duties of jurors; what the Crown must prove in order for guilty verdicts to be reached; and what verdicts are open to the jury, among other instructions.

In this case, the Crown is seeking first-degree murder convictions against each of the accused. Mervyn Shaw, defence lawyer for Wolfe, asked the jury to find his client guilty of manslaughter rather than murder, while Hotomani’s lawyer Greg Wilson asked the jury to return a not guilty verdict for his client.

McMurtry told jurors they could find each of the accused guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter, or not guilty of any offence.

In order to find Wolfe and Hotomani guilty of first-degree murder, the judge said the Crown needs to have proven a variety of elements, including that each unlawfully confined Sugar during the same series of events that led to his death, that they actively participated in the killing — whether directly or as an aider or abettor — and that defences like intoxication or provocation do not apply.

Ryan Daniel Sugar, whose body was found in a burnt-out house in Regina on Oct. 11, 2016. Murder charges were subsequently laid in his death.

McMurtry explained a person can be found guilty either as a “principal” participant in an offence, or as a party to an offence. She said to arrive at guilty verdicts, jurors must find the two were involved in committing an arson, either as a principal or as an aider or abettor, that their conduct contributed significantly to Sugar’s death, and that they had the intent to kill Sugar or cause bodily harm they knew could cause his death.

McMurtry also outlined various testimony the court heard during the course of the trial, which began approximately three weeks ago. In running through evidence heard, the judge pointed to a number of key Crown witnesses considered, by definition, “unsavoury” due to their criminal backgrounds. Because of that, she advised jurors to ensure they search for corroboration when looking to determine what, if any, weight to place on those individuals’ testimony.

The jury had not yet reached a verdict by late afternoon.

hpolischuk@postmedia.com

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Police are on the lookout for a Regina Correctional Centre inmate who escaped while out on escort.

Rodger Kenneth King, 46, escaped custody around 3:15 p.m. Wednesday while on an escorted absence from the Regina jail.

He is described as 5-foot-10, 175 pounds with a tribal fish and “Kings” tattooed on his left arm. His right shoulder has tribal art tattooed on it, and his right forearm has a rose tattoo.

King is on remand for firearms related offenses, possession of a controlled substance and breaches of probation.

Anyone with information about his whereabouts is asked to call 911 or local police services.

It’s the second time in less than a week a search has been launched for an escaped inmate who was under escort.

On Monday, Kamsack RCMP issued a notice saying it was searching for 26-year-old Tyson Cote, who fled from police custody on Saturday afternoon after being taken to hospital for medical treatment.

Cote is charged with multiple offences, including assault.

Rodger Kenneth King escaped custody while on escort from the Regina Correctional Centre Wednesday.

A Regina jury has found Gregory James Wolfe guilty of first-degree murder in the October 2016 fire-related death of 31-year-old Ryan Sugar.

Co-accused Colinda Lee Hotomani was found guilty of second-degree murder.

Hotomani, 36, and Wolfe, 26, stood trial at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench on first-degree murder charges in Sugar’s death.

On Wednesday shortly after 2 p.m. — approximately 12 hours after they began deliberations — the jury returned with their verdict. Hotomani was crying, as were members of Sugar’s family. Wolfe showed no significant reaction but took a deep, shaky breath following the verdict.

Shortly after the verdicts, Wolfe was handed the mandatory sentence for first-degree murder, life with no parole for 25 years. Meanwhile, Hotomani — who had no previous criminal record — received a mandatory life sentence. Her parole eligibility was set at 10 years.

Gregory James Wolfe, left, flashes a gesture at the camera just after being found guilty of first degree murder in the 2016 death of Ryan Sugar at the Court of Queen’s Bench on Victoria Avenue.

Wolfe’s demeanour changed as he addressed Sugar’s family, tearing up as he apologized for his actions and told them he and Sugar had actually met a week prior to the homicide and talked about heading to British Columbia together.

“I’m sorry for your guys’s loss,” he said. “I don’t know how else to say it.”

Hotomani also apologized, telling the family what happened that night was “totally uncalled for.”

“I’ve got kids,” she said. “I don’t know how I would feel if my kid died. I’m sorry.”

Family friend Brenda Dubois read victim impact statements from Sugar’s family, describing the man as a warm, loving family man and the past two years as “a dark road of sadness, loneliness and broken hearts.”

“I hope you know your actions changed many lives, not just one,” Ryan’s mother Jocelyn wrote.

During the trial, which began approximately 3½ weeks ago, court heard from a variety of Crown witnesses who testified about the events leading to and following the death of Sugar in a house fire at 1555 McTavish St.

Among witnesses was Jessica Pangman, who faces her own murder charge in connection with the same incident. Pangman testified that during a night of drinking and drug use, her aunt — Hotomani — told her Sugar had sexually assaulted the two women while they’d been asleep.

Colinda Lee Hotomani, left, just after being found guilty of second-degree murder in the 2016 death of Ryan Sugar at the Court of Queen’s Bench on Victoria Avenue.

Pangman told the court Wolfe and Hotomani assaulted Sugar, and that Wolfe sliced the other man with a bladed weapon Hotomani handed him. Pangman said a pleading Sugar was backed into the bathroom, outside of which Wolfe and Hotomani started a fire. She said Wolfe used a large TV to block Sugar into the room.

Pangman told the court when the three left the smoky house, Sugar had made it past the TV and into the back bedroom — the room where his body was found a few days later on Oct. 11.

Court also heard from witnesses who testified Hotomani and Wolfe admitted to their roles in the incident.

Defence lawyers for the two accused did not call any evidence on their clients’ behalf, but urged the jury to consider a manslaughter verdict in Wolfe’s case and a not guilty finding in Hotomani’s.

Wolfe’s lawyer Mervyn Shaw and Hotomani’s lawyer Greg Wilson argued provocation as a defence, given the allegations of sex assault. Intoxication was also raised as a possible defence.

Rhonda Bigknife, right, aunt of Ryan Sugar who was killed in 2016, speaks to media outside Regina’s Court of Queen’s Bench on Victoria Avenue, following the delivery of guilty verdicts for two accused in her nephew’s death. Beside her is family friend Brenda Dubois.

Ryan Daniel Sugar, whose body was found in a burnt-out house in Regina on Oct. 11, 2016. Murder charges were subsequently laid in his death.

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Despite admitting to defacing a statue of Sir John A. Macdonald in August, Patrick Johnson initially sought to plead not guilty to a mischief charge when he made his first appearance at Regina Provincial Court on Thursday.

Speaking to the Leader-Post afterward, he said it had been his intention to take the charge through the court process as a way of continuing to bring light to the issues at the heart of his actions.

“I pleaded not guilty because I was interested in moving this situation along as far as it would go, to as much of an audience as possible in order to bring my ideas forward,” he said.

Instead, he will have his chance to discuss the matter with someone from the City of Regina — the complainant in this case — through a mediation process.

After Johnson’s attempt at entering a plea, prosecutor Mitchell Miller told the court the Crown would refer the matter to the Regina Alternative Measures Program (RAMP) if Johnson was agreeable.

Johnson met briefly with a RAMP representative in court and decided he was interested. Successful completion of the program would mean his charge would eventually be withdrawn, leaving him without a criminal conviction.

The case was set over to January to allow time for the mediation process.

“I just wanted to not plead (guilty) because I wanted to stand up and talk about what I believe, and how I believe I’m not guilty of mischief because I’m advancing the public dialogue and the federal government’s own recommendations for (Truth and Reconciliation) …,” he said. “I have admitted I did that job, I did that spray paint, but it was for a bigger reason. It wasn’t malicious vandalism or damage or such. It was to bring this more to the forefront of the public knowledge or public consciousness.”

Johnson was charged after the Macdonald statue in Victoria Park was spray painted on Aug. 21. Johnson — a local musician who lives in Vibank — came forward, acknowledging he was the one responsible.

He also admitted, during a previous interview with the Leader-Post, to having done the same thing on March 8, following the acquittal of Gerald Stanley in the death of Colten Boushie. He further claimed to have once unsuccessfully taken a sledgehammer to the statue.

Johnson — who is not of Indigenous background himself — said on Thursday his intention was to “reclaim the safe space in downtown Regina” for First Nations people, given their history with the country’s first prime minister.

“I also wanted to just make a comment and protest the legacy of violence and treatment of First Nations in the history of Canada up until this present day, with John A. Macdonald being a symbol of the federal government of the Crown,” he said.

Having been sent through the court process, Johnson said his “mission on that level is finished.” But while he said he isn’t intent on breaking the law again, he won’t rule out taking non-legal action in the future to bring issues to light — “as long as people don’t get hurt,” he added.

“If the situation arose again where I was standing up for the underdog who was not being supported, then for sure I would do that,” he said. “I’m not seeking it out on purpose.”

— with files from Mark Melnychuk

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On May 2, 2016, Regina police executed a risky and rare move, ramming a truck carrying Aaron Michael Murphy and a woman he was alleged to be holding against her will and assaulting.

Now Murphy — appealing his convictions and five-year sentence for unlawful confinement, assault causing bodily harm, dangerous driving and evading police — claims it was police actions, and not his, that caused the bulk of his then-girlfriend’s injuries.

“The extent of her injuries were not caused by me,” a self-represented Murphy argued before Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Chief Justice Robert Richards and Justices Peter Whitmore and Lian Schwann. “That was due to the police ramming and the brutal force of impact of her on the dashboard.”

During a trial at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench last year, the 41-year-old man testified in his own defence, claiming the fight between he and the woman was consensual and that what police observed was him simply trying to fend off his girlfriend’s attacks.

But the woman’s story — that she was trapped in a speeding truck with Murphy while he repeatedly punched and even bit her — was corroborated by police witnesses who had been in pursuit. Justice Richard Elson decided that was the version he believed.

Court heard the pursuit continued on city streets and down dusty gravel roads west of the city for half an hour before police completed a rarely used maneuver to resolve the situation. A police dashboard camera captured the tense moment as a police vehicle rammed into the truck while Murphy attempted a right turn onto the Trans-Canada Highway.

The video showed the woman coming out of the truck at that point.

That moment formed much of the basis for Murphy’s appeal, argued on Monday at the province’s highest court.

Murphy repeated his claims from trial, saying he was trying to defend himself and that he was incapable of punching the woman in the way police said.

Murphy argued the severe bruising and swelling to the woman’s face came as a result of the impact from the police vehicle, and took exception to Elson’s findings they were rather the result of an assault.

“I believe he acted as a medical expert, and he is a judge,” Murphy said, arguing such an expert should have been called at trial to speak to cause.

Crown prosecutor Luke Coupal urged the court to leave the convictions and sentence as they stand, arguing there is plenty of evidence to back the verdict. Coupal pointed out some of the evidence came, in fact, from Murphy’s own testimony, in which he acknowledged some bruising and swelling to the woman’s face prior to police impact.

Coupal added that even if the injuries didn’t initially appear as severe as they would later, it wouldn’t be unheard of for symptoms of such injuries to worsen once a little time had passed.

Richards reminded Murphy it’s not the Court of Appeal’s role to retry the case or “reweigh all the evidence.” Rather, it is simply to intervene in the case of a clearly unreasonable verdict that’s not supported by the evidence.

The court reserved its decision.

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On the heels of their murder convictions in the fire-related death of Ryan Sugar, Colinda Lee Hotomani and Gregory James Wolfe are now being sued for causing the house fire.

In a statement of claim filed at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench on Tuesday, 237 Property Development Inc. states it is seeking nearly $100,000 from Hotomani and Wolfe — plus interest and costs — to cover the damages caused to a house at 1555 McTavish St. between Oct. 4 and 5, 2016.

The claim reads the defendants “did wilfully and intentionally start, and cause a fire, in and/or around the Rental Property, which caused catastrophic damage to the Rental Property, contents and surrounding property.”

The corporation claims the costs of rebuilding, repairs and replacement came to $97,776.47 — the amount it is seeking.

The claim adds SGI covered that amount and is now looking to get its money back — via the insured property owner — from Hotomani and Wolfe.

Colinda Lee Hotomani, left, and Gregory James Wolfe.

Statements of claim contain details not yet proven in court. A statement of defence has not yet been filed.

A week ago, Hotomani and Wolfe were convicted by a jury in the death of 31-year-old Sugar — Wolfe of first-degree murder and Hotomani of second-degree murder. They each received a life sentence, Wolfe with no parole eligibility until he’s served 25 years and Hotomani until she’s served 10.

During the trial, which ran for approximately 3½ weeks at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench, the jury heard evidence about a house fire that claimed Sugar’s life. After he was found inside a back bedroom on Oct. 11, 2016, it was determined he died of carbon monoxide poisoning from smoke inhalation.

Sugar’s body also showed signs of a serious assault.

Ryan Daniel Sugar, whose body was found in a burnt-out house in Regina on Oct. 11, 2016. Murder charges were subsequently laid in his death.

A third accused, Jessica Pangman, testified at the trial, telling the court she and Hotomani believed Sugar had sexually assaulted them while they’d been asleep. While both have since said they are no longer certain they were, in fact, assaulted, the belief formed the impetus for an attack on Sugar by both Hotomani and Wolfe.

Sugar was beaten and slashed, and Pangman said he was then backed into the bathroom. She said Wolfe used a large television to barricade a frantic Sugar inside while he and Hotomani started a fire in the small hallway directly outside the room.

Pangman told the court Sugar was alive and calling for help when they left the smoke-filled house.

The fire department was called early on the morning of Oct. 5. Court heard safety issues kept firefighters outside, and that they had no indication anyone was in the house. Firefighters testified the roof had collapsed into the home, preventing a thorough interior search at the time.

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On March 1, 2014, following a few hours of drinking and drug use with a pair of new acquaintances, Jessica Dawn Pelletier awoke on a couch inside a seemingly empty house.

She started searching for one of her acquaintances, and literally tripped over him. A glance told her the man — 41-year-old Marvin Bruce Sefton — was dead.

Terrified, Pelletier fled the house, and ran directly into a member of the Regina Police Service. The third person in the group — the home’s resident Christopher Guy MacGregor — had called 9-1-1.

Pelletier was arrested and charged with murder. She spent approximately 1½ months in custody while, on the outside, MacGregor wove a quickly tangling web of lies, pinning Sefton’s death on her.

But police began to doubt MacGregor’s fluctuating stories, and eventually discovered it was he, not Pelletier, who killed Sefton.

On Wednesday, MacGregor appeared at Regina Court of Queen’s Bench, where he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and received an eight-year sentence.

Christopher Guy MacGregor leaves Court of Queen’s Bench in Regina.

The 43-year-old man spent much of the sentencing hearing fighting back tears, breaking down during the reading of victim impact statements from Sefton’s family and while reading from an emotional apology letter he wrote for them.

“There is no amount of sorries that can fix this situation …,” he said. “I am so ashamed. I cannot ask Marvin Sefton’s family to forgive me when I can’t even forgive myself.”

In her victim impact statement, Sefton’s sister Rhonda Werstiuk wrote MacGregor didn’t just destroy the lives of her family, his actions must have also taken a tremendous toll on the woman he wrongly accused.

Crown prosecutor Chris White told the court the trio had never met each other prior to the night in question. After meeting at Triple 8 Pizza, MacGregor invited the other two back to his place for what started as a good night.

Somewhere along the way, something changed, and Sefton ended up with multiple stab wounds.

After Pelletier’s arrest, police found themselves faced with a range of statements from the only supposed witness to events — MacGregor, who had placed two 9-1-1 calls from his home in the time prior to police arriving. During the second call, MacGregor reported having seen a woman lying next to a knife.

In the days that followed — with Pelletier unable to shed any light on events — MacGregor filled in the blanks with his own story, implicating the woman in the crime.

“He was quick to point the finger of blame away from him and at Miss Pelletier,” White said.

But when his statements went from uncertainty to claims he’d seen Pelletier confronting Sefton with the knife, police became suspicious.

The story really began to unravel when police learned of yet another version, in which he’d reportedly told his sister he’d acted in self-defence to ward off an attack by Sefton.

Pelletier’s charge was dropped, but it took another two years of investigation — including DNA evidence — before MacGregor finally admitted to police what he’d done.

He told police he stabbed Sefton after the man made a sexual advance toward him. Defence lawyer Noah Evanchuk explained his client was molested by a babysitter as a child, and never dealt with the psychological or emotional trauma — likely leading to his reaction that night.

Sefton’s sister said MacGregor’s actions cost her a “family member that meant everything to me.”

Describing her brother as laid back, outgoing, kind and the sort of person who put others ahead of himself, she said Sefton carried a photo of his son whom he had been trying to find. That son learned on the news of his biological father’s death.

Werstiuk said she is now left with nothing but memories, some of her brother’s ashes, a video she frequently watches of Sefton building a deck, and a Christmas stocking the family still puts out every year with the $2 winning tickets Sefton scratched.

“I still can’t say goodbye to my brother, because in my heart, he never left …,” she said. “All I have left are memories, and you can’t take that away from me.”

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On the evening of Aug. 8, 2015, two men were headed south from Arcola on Highway 604 when they were set upon by a half-ton truck that came up behind them.

The truck’s driver, Kyle Lynn Scholpp, was looking for his girlfriend and wrongly believed she was inside the quarter-ton occupied by the two men — neither of whom knew Scholpp or his girlfriend.

“They would become victims of an unprovoked attack solely as a result of Mr. Scholpp’s misguided belief they were accompanied by the object of his search,” Justice Brian Barrington-Foote wrote in his recent decision, sentencing Scholpp to 28 months in prison.

The 30-year-old man was found guilty by a jury earlier this year of various charges, including criminal negligence causing bodily harm, hit and run and breach of probation.

Barrington-Foote recounted details of the incident that began with Scholpp tailgating and then passing and suddenly applying his brakes. The driver of the quarter-ton had to swerve around Scholpp’s truck to avoid a collision, then sped up to try to get away from the offending vehicle.

But Scholpp closed the distance quickly, rear-ending the quarter-ton hard enough to shatter windows.

“(He) then hit the (victims’) vehicle hard from behind a second time, locking on, bumper to bumper, and pushing it down the highway at a speed well in excess of 100 kilometres an hour,” Barrington-Foote wrote.

The driver of the quarter-ton hit his brakes in what proved a futile attempt to slow their movement. Scholpp continued to push, and finally forced the quarter-ton off the highway and into a ditch where it rolled and came to rest on its roof.

He didn’t stop to check on his victims, instead calling a friend to do it.

The driver of the quarter-ton was knocked unconscious and left dangling from his seatbelt. He awoke shortly after and was freed by his passenger.

While injuries mainly consisted of soft-tissue damage, the passenger’s injuries were such that he was forced to quit his job as a farm labourer. The driver also had to change jobs as a result and continues to suffer significant back pain.

“He fears driving at night, and finds that he pays inordinate attention to headlights in his rear-view mirror,” Barrington-Foote wrote of the driver.

Crown prosecutor Lauren Ellis had asked for a total of three years while defence lawyer Sharon Fox requested 12 months. Fox said her client, the product of a troubled childhood, has worked to confront his problems with alcohol and anger, and has never before been to jail. (Alcohol is not believed to have played a role in this offence.}

In the end, Barrington-Foote — noting Scholpp’s lengthy history of driving offences, among other factors — decided a prison term was necessary, to be followed by a two-year driving prohibition.

“This was an extraordinary and shocking case of criminal negligence which resulted in a very serious accident,” he wrote. “Both victims continue to be seriously impacted by these crimes more than three years after the event.”

The judge added his concern Scholpp — who still denies involvement in the crash — is known to minimize and deflect responsibility.

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When police showed up at Gordon Brian Arnault’s house, they weren’t there for him.

Rather, they were there to check whether his housemate — who, like Arnault, was subject to a high-risk offender peace bond — was following conditions of his order.

What police discovered inside led to charges against Arnault — charges eventually tossed out by a judge who found police were wrong in conducting a warrantless and “unreasonable” search that implicated the man.

The Crown launched an appeal, arguing provincial court Judge Stephen Carter was wrong in his interpretation of the law pertaining to the search and seizure section of the Charter. One of the key issues pertains to the ability to conduct a search when someone other than the subject of that search is impacted.

In this case, Arnault and his housemate were subject to like conditions — among them, no alcohol, drugs or weapons — and all three items were allegedly found inside when the Saskatoon Police Service Guns and Gangs unit acted on the search clause contained in the housemate’s valid court order.

Arnault went to trial, but Carter effectively brought an end to the matter by finding his Charter rights had been violated — a decision that tossed out all the Crown’s relevant evidence.

On Friday, Crown prosecutor Dean Sinclair argued the case in front of Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, urging the court to overturn Carter’s decision and asking for another trial.

In restating some of the details of the March 2017 search, Sinclair said police knocked and spoke to both the home’s residents, noting a number of other people were also present. Arnault objected to the search, but police went ahead anyway.

Court heard they quickly spotted evidence in plain sight that led to the arrest of the two men, including drugs, alcohol and a guest wearing gang regalia. A further search, which included the opening of a closet and the lifting of a couch cushion and mattress, allegedly turned up two sawed-off shotguns, ammunition and three machete-type weapons.

“What they walked into, in the vernacular, was a crack house, and that was apparent,” Sinclair told the court.

He said police had decided a search warrant wasn’t required as they believed the housemate’s existing court order gave them the ability to enter the residence and conduct the search.

Carter disagreed.

Sinclair argued the ruling, if applied to other cases, would make it next to impossible for police to ever enter and search a property if a resident other than the subject is there and opposes.

“It ignores the fundamental parts of our search and seizure law,” he said.

Sinclair added police in the Arnault case conducted the search in a reasonable manner and didn’t use any significant force in carrying it out.

But Arnault’s lawyer Murray Pelletier argued Carter was correct in finding police overstepped in putting the housemate’s court order above Arnault’s right to a reasonable expectation of privacy.

“Simply assuming (the housemate’s) search clause trumped the accused’s reasonable expectation of privacy in his own home was a serious violation of (the Charter section),” he said.

He argued police did use force, went beyond a “cursory” search and should have obtained a search warrant.

Pelletier added Carter, as the trial judge, deserves deference as he is the one who heard the evidence at trial.

Justices Georgina Jackson, Peter Whitmore and Lian Schwann reserved decision.

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Two men and a woman are facing kidnapping charges after a 21-year-old woman was found in a field near Regina.

According to information from the Regina Police Service, city police were contacted Wednesday morning by the RCMP, who said they’d found a woman “who had been kidnapped and dumped in a field.”

By the time city police were notified, the woman was in hospital. She told police the incident began the day before at a home on the 1200 block of McTavish Street. She said she’d been assaulted, put in the trunk of a vehicle and driven out of the city to a rural area.

She was later found by a passerby who helped her and called police.

Police began an investigation and subsequently arrested three people on Thursday, all Regina residents — 21-year-old Cze-Sand Banab, 28-year-old Allyson Kristina Bachiu and 36-year-old Jamie Dale Miller.

Police said the woman and the three accused are known to each other.

All three are charged with kidnapping. Bachiu and Miller are also each charged with aggravated assault and breach of undertaking, while Bachiu faces an additional charge of breach of probation.

The three made their first appearances at Regina Provincial Court on Friday afternoon.

On the heels of a judge’s decision allowing a crucial statement into evidence, a 43-year-old man accused in a tense police standoff parted ways with his defence lawyer.

Lyall Marlin Anaquod faces a range of charges, among them pointing a firearm at a member of the Regina Police Service and discharging a firearm.

During the trial, court heard details of a tense incident that unfolded on Oct. 23, 2017 after police went to a house on the 1100 block of Elphinstone Street.

Court heard shots were fired from inside the house. The RPS SWAT team was called to the scene, and a sniper testified he took a shot at the shooter, but missed, after a bullet from inside the house passed close by another officer.

The standoff lasted all day. Two people — Anaquod and Jocelynn McKay — left the house amid a barrage of tear gas.

Tuesday was the day Judge Dennis Fenwick was to deliver his decision on whether a videotaped police statement by McKay — the Crown’s key witness — would be made admissible as a full exhibit.

The statement was provided to a member of the RPS within a day of the incident. In it, McKay told the officer she heard Anaquod talk about shooting police and watched as he fired out the window.

McKay was arrested and held for trial after failing to appear to testify in the past. On the date she finally took the stand, she proved a difficult witness, claiming to not remember details of what Fenwick called “a highly unusual event” that was “tense and dangerous in the extreme.”

On the stand, she denied having seen or heard the things she said in her statement, and said she was tired at the time. But Fenwick noted she also appeared “lucid and sufficiently alert” during the interview.

He found she presented as a disinterested witness, save one exception in which she stated she was “not a rat.”

The judge said it was clear McKay was refusing to testify in any meaningful way, making the police statement necessary.

While not ideal — the admission of such a statement precludes defence counsel from testing the evidence through cross-examination — Fenwick ruled the Crown had shown the statement was not only necessary, but met the “threshold reliability” test. The judge explained that doesn’t mean the statement is to be admitted as true, but rather is reliable enough to be weighed at trial along with all the other evidence.

A lengthy break followed the decision, at the end of which defence lawyer Tyne Hagey asked leave to withdraw, citing a breakdown in the lawyer-client relationship.

Anaquod said he wants the court to appoint him a lawyer for the remainder of the trial, then asked for a significantly longer adjournment than the one suggested by Fenwick.

Anaquod is back in court Oct. 30. A decision as to court-appointed counsel has not yet been made.

Prior to adjourning, Fenwick commented on the number of accused discharging their lawyers at critical points during proceedings, stating it’s increasing “almost at an alarming rate.”

He added those actions result in delays.

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