‘I didn’t pull the trigger’: Gerald Stanley testifies
Gerald Stanley took the stand in his own defence this afternoon, saying he did not intend to fire the shot that killed Colten Boushie and believed the handgun was unloaded.
The 56-year-old rancher and part-time mechanic pleaded not guilty to a second-degree murder charge in connection with the 2016 shooting death of 22-year-old Boushie, which occurred in Stanley’s farmyard Aug. 9, 2016. Stanley’s trial, which has attracted considerable public and media attention, began on Jan. 29 in Battleford.
This afternoon Stanley took the stand himself and told the jury the shot that killed Boushie was due to a rare type of misfire known as a hang-fire. Much of the trial, including the evidence of two firearms experts, examined the phenomenon of hang-fires, which occur when defective ammunition creates a delay between the trigger pull and the round discharging.
Wearing a striped, button-down shirt and black pants, Stanley stood in the witness box as most of those in attendance heard him speak at length for the first time. He spoke in a calm, measured voice throughout his testimony, at times putting on reading glasses to refer to diagrams and photos of the crime scene.