Court hears closing arguments in Roderick Sutherland’s manslaughter trial

Burge said the Crown is asking the jury to look at the parties to an offense, which means a person can be held legally responsible for a crime even if they did not directly commit it themselves.

Megan Gallagher was last seen in 2020 on video surveillance at a convenience store on Diefenbaker Drive. Her remains were found two years later along the South Saskatchewan River. (Facebook)

According to the agreed statement of facts, which outlined a timeline of when Gallagher was killed including banking records, messages and phone calls, Cheyann Crystal Peeteetuce called Gallagher on her cell phone to buy drugs at 4:30 a.m. on Sept 20., 2020.

About an hour later, Gallagher took a cab to the Circle K convenience store on Diefenbaker Drive to meet a man to purchase drugs. She also withdrew $243.14 from her bank account inside the store. At 6:17 a.m. Gallagher got out of a cab at the Weldon Avenue home.

Burge also referred to testimony from Robert Thomas, who is already serving a life sentence for second-degree murder in connection with Gallagher’s death. Thomas said the people in the garage were doing drugs, drinking and “having a good time,” but the mood changed throughout the night.

“I suggest that what Bobby Thomas told us is consistent with the timeline that I’ve just given you,” Burge told the jury.

Thomas testified that Peeteetuce and Summer-Sky Henry asked Sutherland to use his garage to question Gallagher. Thomas also said Sutherland struck Gallagher with brass knuckles and told him “I got your back.”

“This is evidence of active participation in dealing with the person who was tied up and confined,” Burge said.

Burge also pointed to a 2021 interview, which took place after Sutherland went to police to make a statement, and pointed out inconsistencies between what Sutherland said during the interview and the timeline laid out in the agreed statement.

“I suggest to you that Rod Sutherland is leaving things out here; that things went from good to virtually, I suggest, bordering on sinister,” Burge said.

Defense lawyer Blaine Beaven suggested that the witnesses who testified were not credible or reliable, saying Thomas also tried to minimize his involvement in Gallagher’s death.

“Rod is the opposite,” Beaven told the jury.

“He feels a terrible weight on his shoulders about what happened, and he’s putting more weight on himself than is necessary, but it’s coloring his memory of what occurred.”

Beaven said Sutherland made the difficult decision to come forward to the police in 2021, a choice which he said “really cracked this case open for the police.”

“You saw how upset he was in that statement when he talked about what happened. You saw him cry, how he wished he had done something to stop what happened,” Beaven told the jury.

On Thursday, Justice John Morrall is expected to give his instructions to the jury ahead of deliberations.

by Mia Holowaychuk - CKOM News

Court hears closing arguments in Roderick Sutherland’s manslaughter trial

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