A man who opened fire on a pickup killing a Blackfalds man near Eckville in 2022 has been convicted of manslaughter.
Dustin Lemay-Storms, 36, was charged with second-degree murder and a three-week trial took place last month before Red Deer Court of King's Bench Justice Wayne Renke.
On Friday, the judge said there was not enough evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Lemay-Storms intentionally meant to kill Stephen Pond when he fired six shots at the pickup Pond was driving on on a rural road with his wife by his side around 4 a.m. on June 20, 2022. One of the bullets hit Pond in the head, fatally wounding him.
Pond and his wife, Leanne Low, were raising three children between the ages of four and eight at the time of his death. He also had two teenage children from an earlier relationship.
A manslaughter conviction in which a firearm was used is punishable by a minimum of four years in prison up to a life sentence.
Renke said given the scenario in those early morning hours it was "reasonably possible" Lemay-Storms was firing at the truck and not targeting Pond.
The judge said the evidence indicated that Lemay-Storms had opened fire at night-time from a nearby field when Pond was quickly reversing his truck dipping through ditches when he was hit by the fatal shot. Pond had been in the area in search of copper wire to steal.
Pond's wife testified during the trial that Lemay-Storms popped out of a ditch and fired at them from point-blank range. The judge said Low's memory may have been faulty on that point and the evidence points to the shots being fired from further away, where five shell casings were found.
"I find that the shooter was in the field where the casings were found," he said.
Renke said while Lemay-Storms cannot be found guilty of second-degree murder, any reasonable person would consider that shooting in the darkness at a pickup with two people inside would likely injure or kill.
"Perfect aim could not reasonably be predicted."
For Lemay-Storms to be found guilty, Crown prosecutors had to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he was the shooter.
Renke said a raft of circumstantial evidence linked him to the killing. He lived within 500 metres of the shooting scene and his DNA was found on the murder weapon, which was recovered by police from under a mattress in a residence where Lemay-Storms was known to stay. Texts he sent to a friend which mentioned the STARS helicopter that came to take Pond to an Edmonton hospital placed him in the area at the time of the shooting.
"The circumstantial evidence established beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Lemay-Storms shot and killed Mr. Pond," said the judge.
Another critical piece of evidence was Lemay-Storms's admission to a friend that he did the shooting. The friend had gone to the residence where Lemay-Storms and a woman he had been in a relationship with were in the midst of a heated confrontation.
Lemay-Storms had barricaded himself into a bedroom and while the friend was trying to coax him out and talk him out of killing himself he said it didn't matter anyway because was was going either to hell or jail anyway. The witness could not recall the exact words.
He then admitted to her that he had done it. When she asked if he meant the shooting, he nodded yes.
"He said he had shot him," said the judge.
Renke said there was no doubt Lemay-Storms was talking about the Pond shooting.
"What he meant was entirely clear."
More than a dozen friends and family were in the courtroom to hear the judge's decision. A sentencing date is expected to be set on March 3.
