Eiryn Straightnose takes stand in teen’s first-degree murder trial

The woman who sent the text message leading to the death of Winston Littlecrow testified in the trial of the alleged gunman.

Eiryn Straightnose was sentenced to nine years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in February.

Straightnose wiped away tears with her grey prison sweatshirt while she listened to a recorded police interview, hearing herself speak about her three children and during phone conversation with her father.

Crown prosecutors asked Straightnose to provide evidence during the trial of the person she texted, who is charged with first-degree murder.

He can’t be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act because he was 17 years old at the time of the alleged offence.

While she was on the stand, prosecutors said Straightnose was “holding the evidence hostage” and being uncooperative in their line of questioning.

Straightnose testified that she didn’t want to appear as a witness and was unwilling to read a transcript of her interview with an investigator from the Saskatoon Police Service after watching the recorded video, noting that she had trouble hearing it after it was played in court.

The police interview took place in January 2020, around five weeks after the shooting.

In the agreed statement of facts from Straightnose’s sentencing hearing, Straightnose sent a text to someone she knew with a gun after running into Littlecrow, someone who was in a rival gang.

She encountered him at a home on Avenue X near 23rd Street, a residence she was hoping to turn into a “trap house” — a place for she and her gang, Terror Squad, to sell drugs.

The defence questioned whether she was sober at the time of her arrest and on the night of the shooting.

She said she was using crystal meth on a daily basis at that time.

The defence also asked her why she had changed her answers after being asked the same question on the stand and whether she was “picking and choosing” her responses to the court.

She suggested that she was picking and choosing.

The Crown is planning to close its case on Oct. 12.

The trial is scheduled until Oct. 15.

1:26 Eiryn Straightnose sentenced to 9 years for text sent prior to Winston Littlecrow death