Saskatoon GPS car tracker case: 70 charges and 17 victims so far

The man facing several charges after Saskatoon Police found GPS trackers on people’s vehicles has nearly doubled.

According to police, 34 additional charges were laid against 46-year-old Marty Schira last week, with a total of 17 victims identified to date.

The Saskatoon man now faces 70 charges that include harassment, mischief, intimidation, fraudulent concealment of a computer system, and fraudulent use of a computer system.

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Investigators expect further charges to be laid, reminding the public to check their vehicles for trackers and to report any findings to the Saskatoon Police Service.

Schira’s case in Saskatoon Provincial Court on Wednesday was adjourned after his defence lawyer received disclosure of the recent charges on Tuesday. Pleas are now expected to be entered on March 26.

Schira’s defence lawyer also said he anticipates discussing whether the Crown meets the threshold for a Section 752 assessment, which is a psychological evaluation to determine whether a person can be classified as a dangerous or long-term offender.

Schira’s dangerous history

In 2004, Schira was sentenced in Alberta to 14 years for kidnapping and raping a Saskatchewan woman in 2003. That sentence was later reduced to 13 years on appeal.

Court records show Schira used a loaded sawed-off 22-caliber rifle to kidnap the woman from Rosetown. He then drove her in his truck to his apartment in Calgary.

During the trip, the woman was sexually assaulted multiple times. She later escaped and flagged down a passing driver who took her to the police.

After the arrest, a friend of Schira’s told police that Schira had asked him to keep a gun for him.

That gun was described as a 22-calibre rifle with the barrel and stock sawed off with a live round in the chamber.

According to records obtained by 650 CKOM from the Parole Board of Canada, Schira was not released on parole in September 2012 as they said he would be “likely, if released, to commit an offence causing serious harm to another person before the expiration of your sentence.”

While serving his sentence the records show he “stabbed a correctional officer from behind with a protractor in the forehead and twice in the hand,” in June 2013.

While in custody, Schira saw a psychologist whose assessment said he was “at a moderate to high risk to re-offend in a sexual manner and a low to moderate risk to re-offend in a violent manner.”

The board said Schira “appears to present with a severe mental disorder of a psychotic kind (impaired contact with reality) diagnosed as a delusional disorder, persecutory type” before going on to say he “presented with paranoid delusions (fixed false unshakable beliefs) that he has been harassed by a private detective resulting in harm to his health and an inability to function.”

Schira’s case management team reported that for more than nine years, Schira did not make “any measurable gains towards mitigating his high-risk factors” and “remains untreated in the areas of violence prevention and sexual deviancy.”

They also said, “There are currently no supervision plans or strategies available in the community that could effectively manage his risk.”