Quentin Strawberry found not guilty in 2019 stabbing death

A trial for the matter was held in February. The verdicts were announced during a virtual hearing held Monday afternoon in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench.

The Crown and defence submitted a joint sentencing submission for the assault count four months behind bars satisfied by time already served. The submission was accepted by Justice Marilyn Slawinsky.

In delivering her findings, Slawinsky noted that Carter’s testimony at trial, though compelling and believable, contained inaccuracies, including an alleged dying declaration from Gallant identifying Strawberry as his attacker that Slawinsky had doubts took place.

“I have no doubt whatsoever that either Mr. Strawberry or Mr. (Byron) Peters fatally stabbed Mr. Gallant,” Slawinsky explained.

“Both Mr. Strawberry and Mr. Peters had the opportunity to attack Mr. Gallant. Despite extensive testing, the forensic evidence cannot assist the court in determining whether Mr. Strawberry or Mr. Peters stabbed Mr. Gallant.”

Slawinsky added, “It is likely that Mr. Strawberry was the person that stabbed Mr. Gallant. There’s a complete lack of evidence that Mr. Peters had any reason to attack Mr. Gallant and Miss Carter, even though Miss Carter testified that he had some sort of weapon in his hand.”

Slawinsky said that as there was no direct evidence identifying Gallant’s attacker, and with Byron Peters absconding from the proceedings in defiance of a subpoena and a witness warrant, she could not exclude the alternate possibility of Peters being the attacker.

“I reluctantly conclude that the evidence against Mr. Strawberry does not meet the standard of proof beyond reasonable doubt required for a criminal conviction, even though he was the likely perpetrator,” said Slawinsky.

“What this ruling shows is that even when someone is a marginalized and disenfranchised person under the thumb of major crimes of the RCMP, the Ministry of Justice and a team of Crown Prosecutors, that they and their one lawyer can appear in the halls of justice and find success no matter how badly the odds are stacked against them. This is the proper functioning of our justice system. It works for everyone and not just a select few. Today’s verdict is something that should be celebrated,” defence lawyer Maurice Collard said in a statement to rdnewsNOW.

“Since I have been his lawyer the past few years, we have fought very hard and found great success with this charge, charges of attempt murder, aggravated assaults, firearms charges, and armed standoffs amongst other serious offences. Just because one side is unhappy with the outcomes doesn’t mean our adversarial justice system is not working. Often it just means the evidence isn’t there. Simply put, no one should be in jail unless there is proper and admissible evidence to support that, especially for a life sentence.”

Collard noted that while Justice Slawinsky ruled Strawberry was an enforcer, collecting a debt, who brought the murder weapon, struck Mr. Gallant, and was the likely killer, that this country does not jail people for ‘likely’ committing crimes.

“’Likely’ is not good enough. We did a lot of good work and fought a lot of difficult legal battles in this case, but today Mr. Strawberry is a free man without conditions on him and he looks forward to moving on with his life.”

by rdnewsNOW staff

Quentin Strawberry found not guilty in 2019 stabbing death

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