Appeals dismissed for three men convicted in 2015 murder in Regina

Saskatchewan’s top court has dismissed the appeals of three men found guilty of first-degree murder in 2018.

In a written decision released Tuesday, the Court of Appeal upheld the life sentences handed to Daniel Theodore, Andrew Bellegarde and Bronson Gordon.

The three men were convicted of first-degree murder in March of 2018 in the killing of Reno Lee, who died in April 2015 after being shot twice in the head.

Lee’s body was eventually found dismembered and decapitated east of Regina on the Star Blanket First Nation, near Balcarres.

The men appealed for a variety of reasons.

According to court documents, Theodore claimed he didn’t receive a fair trial “because the trial judge failed to ensure that jurors were properly screened for racial bias and failed to properly instruct jurors on the need to set aside biases, prejudices and stereotypical views about Indigenous persons.”

Bellegarde and Gordon claimed “the trial judge’s final instructions to the jury were cumbersome and confusing, failed to properly explain certain aspects of the law and, as a whole, were not functionally adequate.”

Bellegarde also argued the trial judge shouldn’t have allowed a Crown witness to testify remotely as opposed to being in the courtroom.

The appeal was heard by videoconference in September. In a written decision, the three justices were in agreement in dismissing the appeal.

Justice Jeff Kalmakoff, who wrote the decision, didn’t find any irregularities that supported Theodore’s claims of racial bias.

Kalmakoff also didn’t find any errors in the trial judge’s instructions to the jury or in her decision to allow the witness to testify remotely.

The three men were sentenced at trial to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Theodore and Bellegarde also each received a concurrent sentence of five years for offering an indignity to human remains.