2021 was not even two hours old when Prince George RCMP responded to the city's first homicide of the year.
At 1:45 a.m. on New Year's Day police were called to a 2800-block 15th Avenue home where the body was found. The victim was later identified as Elie Eric Blanchard, 50, the apparent victim of a drug-related murder that remains unsolved.
Two men have been arrested and charged from two other homicides in 2021.
David MacLeod, 25, has been charged with one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempt to commit murder from an alleged April 10 incident at Pulp Mill Road home. The victims' names have not been released.
And Dennis Daniel Gladue has been charged with second-degree murder in the death of Christin West, whose body was found in a 2000-block 20th Avenue apartment building on August 7.
Arrests were also made in relation to four other homicides from previous years:
- In July, three men were arrested in connection with the June 2016 shooting death of Robert Lee Milligan. Cuyler Richard Aubichon, Kelly Micheal Richet, and Christopher Ryan Russel are now in custody, each facing a charge of manslaughter with a firearm
- In September, Charlene Jane Alexander was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in relation to the July 2020 stabbing death of Jessie Mae Hayward-Lines in front of the courthouse.
- Also in September, Justin Kyle Aster was arrested and faces counts of criminal negligence and arson in relation to the July 2020 that struck the Econo Lodge Motel and left three people dead. A class action lawsuit related to the matter also remains in play.
- In December, Jason Troy Getty was arrested in Surrey and charged with second-degree murder in the death of Crystal Chambers, whose body was found in August 2020 east of Prince George.
Homicides from 2021 that remain without arrests are:
- A January 28 discovery of a man in a snowbank at the end of Domano Boulevard suffering from life-threatening injuries. He later died in hospital while Prince George RCMP's serious crimes unit was called in to investigate.
- During the early morning of April 22, a man made his way to the emergency room at University Hospital of Northern B.C. but died from injuries allegedly suffered at a 900-block Carney Street home known to police.
- On Christmas Day, Prince George Fire Rescue Services at a residential fire in the 600 block of Burden Street just before noon. While at the residence, fire crews found human remains inside the house. An investigation quickly determined that the fire was caused by arson and police are investigating the death as a homicide.
Some major decisions came down from the courts in 2021:
In February, the B.C. Court of Appeal raised a conviction for a man involved in a drug-related shooting death outside of Prince George to first-degree murder.
The outcome meant Darren Cayley Daniel Sundman will have to serve 25 years before he is eligible to apply for parole, up from the 16 years he originally faced upon sentencing in July 2018 for the January 2015 murder of Jordan Taylor McLeod.
In March, and for a second time, a jury found a Vanderhoof man guilty of manslaughter with a firearm in the shooting death of his fiancee.
The outcome for Kayne Sabbe Penner stemmed from the Dec. 20, 2012 shooting death of April Johnson, 18. Penner was handling a .22-calibre semiautomatic rifle within the confines of his cousin's trailer home in the community west of Prince George when it went off. The bullet struck Johnson in the stomach and she later died in hospital.
In March 2017, a jury found Penner guilty of the same count and, in September 2017, he was sentenced to four years in prison. But in March 2019, the B.C. Court of Appeal ordered a new trial over concerns about the charge the trial judge issued to the jury prior to deliberations.
Sentencing is to occur in the New Year.
Also in March, a now-retired local high school teacher, Kim Randall Koehn, was sentenced to three years probation for engaging in a months-long sexual relationship with a student in the mid-1980s.
In May, a Quesnel-area man, Roger Wayne Evans, was found guilty of manslaughter in the accidental shooting death of his son, Dale, at their home about 50 kilometres west of Quesnel.
In the home was a rifle - a Savage 99C Series A .308 Winchester with lever action - that Roger Evans normally kept standing in the corner of his bedroom but, for reasons not explained, it was lying on the kitchen table amid several empty and full beer cans.
Evans had picked up a rifle with the intent of carrying out to a trailer for safe keeping when it went off. His son, Dale, who had been walking in front of his father as they were leaving the home, was struck in the back with a .308-calibre bullet.
Sentencing remains pending.
In June, Shawn Gilbert Leroux (aka Lash Leroux), was prohibited from driving for five years for trying to flee police while behind the wheel of a motorhome.
On February 22, police had noticed the motorhome lacked licence plates and tried to pull it over near Fifth Avenue and Central Street.
Instead, the motorhome collided with the RCMP vehicle and kept going. the driver continued to Haldi Lake Road, where he collided with a pickup truck at the intersection with Highway 16 West before finally stopping in the 9000 block of Haldi Lake Road.
On a related note, in September, Jocelyn Rae Wood was prohibited from driving for two years for colliding with an ambulance while driving a stolen pickup truck
The Chetwynd woman was also sentenced to a conditional sentence order - effectively house arrest - of two years less a day for the Oct. 28, 2020 incident on Highway 97 just north of the Simon Fraser Bridge.
Police said at the time that the stolen pickup was driven out of the ditch and hit a median along the highway before ramming into the southbound ambulance, which was carrying two patients. The ambulance then struck another pickup truck towing a trailer.
Several people suffered injuries in the collision although none were life-threatening.
In August, Christopher Clarke Prince was sentenced to a further three years and seven months in prison for the "brutal and senseless" stabbing death of Shane Whitford in May 2017.
Originally charged with second-degree murder, Prince eventually pleaded guilty to manslaughter, which implies he did not intend to kill Whitford but knew his actions risked the possibility.
Sentencing judge Ron Tindale described the act as a "near murder" but, in part, took into account Prince's mental health issues - a long list was cited in a report from a forensic psychiatrist - and low intelligence in assessing his moral culpability.
Two trials at the Prince George courthouse ended in verdicts of not-criminally responsible by reason of mental disorder.
In March, Justin James Johnston was issued the verdict for the January 2020 death of his mother, Joy Morris, at her home in Vanderhoof and in December, it ws the same outcome for Kristopher Edward Leclair for the July 2019 stabbing death of Michael Potter at a home in Quesnel.
Johnston was subsequently ordered to remain at the forensic psychiatric hospital in Coquitlam, while a determination for Leclair remains pending.
In September, Denis Florian Ratte, serving a life sentence for second-degree murder in the shooting death of his wife was denied day parole.
In making the decision, a Parole Board of Canada panel found Ratte has made only "minimal progress" toward addressing a "capacity for extreme violence."
In December 2010, Ratte was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility to apply for parole for 15 years - he received credit for time served in custody before sentencing - after a jury found him guilty of second-degree murder in the August 1997 death of Wendy Ann Twiss Ratte, 44.
For years, the disappearance of the woman, noted for her involvement in the community, was a mystery.
However, the couple's daughter, Anna Sieppert, worked to keep the case on the police radar and Ratte eventually became the target of an elaborate undercover operation, known as a Mr. Big sting, in which police officers posing as high-level criminals worked to extract a confession out of him.
In October, a McLeod Lake woman has been sentenced to a 120-day conditional sentence order and two years probation for obstructing RCMP's effort to arrest her son. Cynthia Marie Openshaw was also issued a 10-year firearms prohibition.
The outcome stems from a Dec. 4, 2018 incident when police had responded to a report that Openshaw's son, Joseph Edward Zaworski, was driving a stolen pickup truck and had tracked him to her home.
According to a decision in which Zaworski was sentenced to three years for throwing a hammer at one of the members, the suspect ran into the home with an RCMP officer in "hot pursuit."
Openshaw, who was described as a "strong advocate" for her son, attempted to push one officer out of the house and in an ensuing struggle with another, grabbed the barrel of the officer's carbine rifle with one hand and the trigger with the other hand.
At one point, she released the magazine from the rifle but the officer was able to recover the item and chased Zaworski down the hallway. As he did, Openshaw grabbed at his leg to prevent him from arresting Zaworski. He had to kick her off to free himself.
Another officer had his gun drawn. When Openshaw grabbed the officer's arms and told him to get out of her house and put his gun away, she was thrown to the ground and subdued.
In November, Keith Christopher Lundy was sentenced to a further two years and one month in jail for possessing a mixture of deadly opioids as well as cocaine for the purpose of trafficking.
The outcome stemmed from a Feb. 14, 2019 arrest.
After a surveillance of a stash house that Lundy had frequented, police stopped a vehicle downtown in which he was a passenger and arrested him on suspicion of trafficking.
In his waistband and pants pocket, police found 21.82 grams of heroin-fentanyl-carfentil and 20.8 grams of cocaine, all prepackaged in baggies for street level sales, along with $80 in $5 bills and keys to a locked safe in a home.
Further searches of two homes in the 5900 block of Montgomery Crescent and 4600 block of Freimuller Avenue uncovered another 28.38 grams of heroin-fentanyl-carfentil and 127.42 grams of cocaine, plus more packaging.
Also in November, Douglas William Gibbs was sentenced to a further eight months in jail for selling a street-level amount of heroin-fentanyl to undercover police officers in front of a Prince George convenience store.
In all, Douglas William Gibbs, 35, was sentenced to 18 months for the offence, but the term was reduced by 10 months to account for time served prior to sentencing.
Gibbs had sold 0.27 grams of the drug in exchange for $30 outside the 7-11 at 20th Avenue and Spruce Street on August 29, 2018.
He also sold 0.23 grams of methamphetamine for $10 and, the next day, sold 0.49 grams of methamphetamine to the officers. For those offences, he was sentenced to concurrent terms of seven months, erased by time served.
In December, Duane Glen Smith was found guilty of dangerous driving causing death for a Sept. 19, 2019 rollover east of Prince George that claimed the life of Dakota Shaw.
At the start of a three-day trial in November, Crown prosecution alleged that in the lead up to the crash several civilians saw the car travelling at a high rate of speed and that an RCMP collision reconstructionist later determined a speed of between 141 and 149 km/h at the time of the crash.
Shaw, who was ejected from the vehicle, was flown by helicopter to University Hospital of Northern British Columbia in Prince George where she was declared deceased early the next morning.
Sentencing will occur once a pre-sentence report has been completed.
Looking ahead, a trial for an RCMP dog handler accused of using excessive force will continue at the courthouse.
Joshua Grafton faces one count each of assault, assault with a weapon and obstruction of justice in relation to an early-morning Feb. 18, 2016 apprehension that was caught on a security camera.
However, testimony from witnesses called by the Crown so far have spoken in favour of how Grafton handled the situation, saying the person arrested was left with only superficial bite wounds.
A trial in October for two other officers involved in the arrest was called off partway through the the charges stayed.
As well, a decision on the city's applicaiton to close down the Moccasin Flats homeless camp won't be known until the new year after B.C. Supreme Court Justice Simon Coval for a deadline of Jan. 12 for further submissions relating to late-filed affidavit. The step followed on three-days of hearings in December.
A trial on sex-related charges dating back more than 45 years for noted public figure Ed John is now scheduled for July.
