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Originally Posted by David Struch
The kids running from him say they heard the bullets whizzing right by their heads, correct?
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He testified that he heard two shots and one of them ricocheted.
Then he changed his story. The kids were either too drunk to know what was going on or outright lied initially.
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Two witnesses at the second-degree murder trial of Gerald Stanley admitted they have changed their stories since they first spoke to police after their friend, Colten Boushie, was fatally shot on a Saskatchewan farm.
Cassidy Cross-Whitstone, who was driving the vehicle in which Mr. Boushie was a passenger, and Belinda Jackson came under withering questioning on Thursday from Mr. Stanley's lawyer, Scott Spencer, about the inconsistencies in their statements to police and their testimony at trial. Mr. Cross-Whitstone, who was 17 at the time, said he initially lied to police because he was afraid he might be in trouble.
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Mr. Cross-Whitstone said he had consumed about 30 shots of liquor that day. After their Ford Escape got a flat tire, he drove to a farm and tried to break into a truck with the butt of his .22 calibre rifle, which he had earlier denied. He said at the time he realized he shouldn't be stealing, and when they left in the Escape, his plan was to ask for help with their flat tire at another farm.
Mr. Cross-Whitstone said the rifle was not loaded when he tried to break into the truck. Afterward, he threw the rifle, which was now missing a stock and seemed bent and broken, in the back of the Ford Escape.
When he was asked how it could be that the gun was in fact loaded when it was seized by RCMP, Mr. Cross-Whitstone said maybe someone at the farm loaded the gun and put it beside Mr. Boushie.
He also told court that after being confronted on Mr. Stanley's farm, he ran from the vehicle and he heard two shots fired in his direction. He said he heard one bullet ricochet and another fizz through the air. But 24 hours after the incident, he told police he believed those were warning shots fired in the air and did not mention a ricochet, Mr. Spencer pointed out.
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https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...ticle37817572/
A jury faced with witnesses that came across as either drunk or dishonest, and the misshapped cartridge as well as testimony from the forensic team that it was unlikely that the farmers finger was on the trigger at the time of the shooting, and there was no way that there was going to be a conviction.
The prosecution had a lousy set of facts and poor witnesses who admitted to being extremely drunk at the time.