Sheldon Stanley said he in was inside the home when he heard three shots and saw his father holding a gun and a magazine.
He testified his father looked like he was going to be sick and said “I don’t know what happened. It just went off. I just wanted to scare them.”
The new details were heard Wednesday in a Battleford courtroom at Gerald Stanley’s second-degree murder trial in the death of Colten Boushie.
Sheldon Stanley Testifies
Sheldon Stanley said he was at the home on Aug. 9, 2016 for a visit and to attend a friend’s wedding.
The 28-year-old told court he heard a vehicle enter the yard as he and his father were working.
“It sounded like it didn’t have a muffler — just really loud.”
At first he thought it was the vehicle’s owner because his dad had been working on it and often did mechanical work for people in the community.
As they approached the vehicle, Sheldon said they heard an ATV start and he started to run.
“I realized it wasn’t somebody looking for parts. It was somebody trying to steal something.”
He said he took a framing hammer and hit the windshield of the vehicle while his father kicked the tail light.
The only person he saw outside the vehicle was a male in black clothing that he identified as the one on the ATV.
Sheldon testified that the vehicle had a clear path out of the yard and took “a deliberate right turn,” colliding into his mother’s blue SUV in the yard.
He said he had run into the house to grab his truck keys to follow the SUV when he heard three shots.
After coming back out of the house, Sheldon Stanley said he saw two men at the end of the yard and attempted to call 911 two or three times from his cellphone at a spot in the yard where he knew he would get a signal.
While making the calls, he said two women in the vehicle were upset and yelling and “at one point they pulled the driver out of the vehicle” through the driver’s door.
“I saw what looked to be a barrel of a gun with no stock come out with the driver,” as he described the women pulling Boushie from the vehicle.
Stanley said the women then attacked his mom before stopping and getting back in the vehicle.
His mother told him she was OK and he called 911 again.
According to Sheldon Stanley, the women picked up the barrel of the gun and we’re almost “mocking what happened, saying ‘bang bang,’” he told court.
The barrel was put back down, Sheldon Stanley testified, and no one touched it after that.
They then sat in silence waiting for police to arrive.
Sheldon Stanley said when they saw the police cars on the main road, his mom went outside where officers told her to lay down on the ground with her hands above her head.
Both Sheldon and Gerald then put their hands up and walked down the driveway.
“Nothing more was ever said,” Sheldon Stanley said as they were put in the backs of vehicles.
They were released and told to pack everything they need and drive to the Biggar detachment.
Sheldon Stanley also testified that he never noticed weapons in the Boushie vehicle when he hit it with a hammer or when he heard gun shots.
He added that they didn’t know Boushie and had never heard his name prior to Aug. 9.
Sheldon Stanley’s cross-examination
During his cross-examination, Sheldon Stanley said when the SUV first entered the yard, there was “no concern” but when he saw the vehicle pull up near the shop beside the ATV, he thought he should go see what they needed.
He told court that when he heard the quad-runner fire up he felt “a little bit of panic” and started running when he saw someone on the ATV and yelled at the person to get off.
Sheldon Stanley said he noticed the SUV had a flat tire as it tried to back up and gravel sprayed everywhere.
“It was moving as fast as it could, I think, with the flat tire.”
Eric Meechance Testifies
Court also heard from Eric Meechance, from Red Pheasant First Nation, who testified to being in a relationship with Belinda Jackson, who was also in the vehicle that day.
On the morning of Aug. 9, Meechance said he, Boushie and another friend, Cassidy Cross, had shot targets at Boushie’s grandmother’s house.
He testified he was picked up by Kiora Wuttunee’s SUV and a .22-calibre rifle was already in the vehicle with some empty casings and live rounds.
The group then went to pick up towels and swim suits at Wuttunee’s house and spent the afternoon swimming near the Maymont area where they drank some alcohol.
Meechance told the court he didn’t drink heavily that day and they had a flat tire.
Meechance testified that the group stopped at a farm, known as the Fouhy farm, before Gerald Stanley’s and that’s when Cassidy Cross used the rifle’s butt end to bang on the window of a vehicle in the yard.
The muffler on the vehicle was dragging and they discussed getting help with the tire from a former Red Pheasant chief but decided not to.
Some of them drifted off to sleep and they eventually pulled into Stanley’s yard.
Cross got out of the vehicle, said Meechance, and was the one that jumped on the quadrunner. It’s then that Meechance said someone yelled at them and hit the windshield.
Meechance told court that Cross was crouched down in the driver’s seat, looking around the shattered glass and hit the vehicle in the yard; there was a cloud of smoke from the radiator and that’s when they decided to run.
He testified to hearing multiple gunshots and losing his shoes as he ran. Meechance walked back to the reserve. He said Cross got a ride.
At the time, he said he didn’t know Boushie had been shot and killed until he was taken into custody.
During cross-examination, defence lawyer Scott Spencer asked Meechance why he didn’t mention to police that they were shooting a gun earlier that day.
Meechance admitted he had a firearm restriction from a previous charge and that the gun was in the backseat.
“It’s not like we went and stole a vehicle. It’s not like we whipped out a gun.”
Defence counsel then accused Meechance of telling media the group was unarmed and asked him about whipping the gun out at the Fouhy farm.
In response, Meechance testified that the court proceedings weren’t regarding that and he was overcome by emotion when directed to look at a picture showing both the rifle barrel and Boushie’s body.
RCMP Const. Andrew Park Testimony
Earlier in the day, RCMP Const. Andrew Park, who was stationed in Biggar on Aug. 9, took the stand.
He testified receiving a call requesting assistance at the Gerald Stanley farm and arrived to find two women on the ground.
He arrested Kiora Wuttunee and Belinda Jackson for mischief and left the scene but later returned as an exhibit officer.
Park testified that Kiora Wuttunee was distraught during the arrest while Jackson was calmer.
Jackson seemed heavily intoxicated, he told the court, but he couldn’t tell if Wuttunee was.
Park said a Tokarev pistol that was found in a gun box in a closet in the Stanley’s home was seized.
While Park was at the Stanley farm, he was called to another farm about 20 km/h northeast of the Stanley property.
He was told suspects allegedly tried to break into a truck there and said he found a broken gun stock on the floor of the truck.
RCMP Const. Andrew Park Cross-Examination
During cross-examination, Park told court the suspicious vehicle on the nearby property – the Fouhy farmyard – was reported as having a muffler that was dragging and a flat tire.
Park looked at pictures of the red truck and broken stock of a gun with a trigger guard and said his original thought was that the stock caused scratch marks on the vehicle.
He seized the stock and took it back to the detachment.
Park also looked at a picture of a barrel that is missing a stock and said his initial thought was that the barrel and stock belonged together.
He testified that to his knowledge there was no fingerprinting or forensic testing on the red truck at the Fouhy farm and no charges were laid in connection to the incident.
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