Jury finds Sutherland guilty of manslaughter in Megan Gallagher’s death

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Sutherland’s trial began on Oct. 6 at Saskatoon’s Court of King’s Bench.

Outside the court after the verdict on Friday, one of Sutherland’s defence lawyers Blaine Beavan, said the team was disappointed with the verdict.

“We ran what I thought was a very solid defence with the evidence that was there, and I think the Crown had a lot of issues with their evidence,” he said, adding it was too early to consider an appeal.

“This is obviously a very difficult day for our client, but we appreciate it’s a very difficult day for Megan Gallagher’s family, but it’s perhaps another step on the way to them healing and moving forward.”

Defence lawyers who represented Roderick Sutherland Alora Arnold, left, and Blaine Beaven. (Mia Holowaychuk/650 CKOM)

Gallagher was killed in September of 2020 by a group of people affiliated with the Terror Squad gang in the garage of Sutherland’s home on Weldon Avenue in Saskatoon.

Her body was then put in the back of a truck and thrown off the St. Louis Bridge into the South Saskatchewan River. Her remains were discovered during a police search two years later.

According to the agreed statement of facts, Sutherland was not present when Gallagher’s body was moved.

Sutherland is one of nine people charged in connection with Gallagher’s death, though details of previous court cases were protected under a publication ban. He was initially charged with first-degree murder, but the charge was later reduced to manslaughter.

During the trial, the jury saw a tape of a police interview Sutherland gave, where he said a group of people came to his house to “ask this girl some questions.” Sutherland said he saw Gallagher tied to a chair in the garage, and later saw her body concealed under a blue tarp.

Sutherland told police he didn’t see exactly what happened to Gallagher and wasn’t involved in her death, though he admitted to calling his brother-in-law, John Sanderson, who said he would “take care of it.”

Sutherland’s sister Jessica Badger (Sutherland) gave Sanderson $120, which he used to purchase gas money and dispose of Gallagher’s body along with an individual identified as Ernest Whitehead, who lived with Sutherland.

Badger, Whitehead and Sanderson pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to human remains.

But during the trial, Robert Thomas, who is serving a life sentence for Gallagher’s murder, testified that Sutherland hit Gallagher while he had “knuckle busters” on his hand, and said Gallagher had admitted to setting Thomas up the night she was killed.

Thomas had said he thought he was being set up by Gallagher that night in the garage because he was held hostage for four days and stabbed multiple times, a month prior to Gallagher’s death.

Anthony Boensch, a retired member of the Saskatoon Police Service and the lead investigator of the case, had testified that Gallagher was loosely associated with the individuals who had tortured Thomas.

While Thomas recalled the night Gallagher was killed, he said Gallagher was tied up with extension cords and moved to different parts of the garage by Cheyann Crystal Peeteetuce and Summer-Sky Henry.

Thomas said he asked Henry to wrap Gallagher’s body in plastic wrap, but said she “wrapped her face.”

Henry and Peeteetuce were sentenced to seven years for manslaughter earlier this year in connection to the killing of Gallagher.

— with files from 650 CKOM’s Mia Holowaychuk

Read more:

• ‘We have more doors to close’: Father reacts to life sentence in murder of son
• Saskatoon police chief reacts to Carney’s tougher bail, sentencing rules
• Saskatoon police briefs: Man flees armed robbery scene