Sarah Sansom at her home in Nobleford, Alta., on May 29, 2020.David Rossiter/The Canadian Press
The wife of a hunter testified that she texted her husband not to drink and drive or fight the night he and his uncle were shot to death on a rural Alberta highway.
Sarah Sansom told a jury trial in Edmonton on Tuesday that alcohol use had previously caused problems in her marriage to Jacob Sansom, who had stopped drinking two years before her death.
Crown lawyers have said that Jacob Sansom and his uncle Maurice Cardinal were followed on a country road northeast of Edmonton in March 2020 and shot after a confrontation.
Roger Bilodeau, 58, and his son Anthony Bilodeau, 33, have each pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder.
Brian Beresh, Bilodeau’s youngest attorney, recounted a statement Sarah Sansom gave to police and read text messages she sent moments before a security camera captured her husband and the Bilodeaus as they clashed.
“You remember repeatedly telling police that you were surprised or shocked when you learned that he had been drinking,” Beresh asked.
“Yes,” Sarah Sansom replied.
“You’re saying, ‘Don’t drive,'” he said, citing text messages she sent.
“Then you add, ‘No fighting, no driving. Please don’t hurt yourself or (do) anything dangerous or illegal’ because you knew he had a tendency to get aggressive when he drank, right?” Beresh asked.
“He was not aggressive. He just did stupid things like fight very rarely,” replied Sarah Sansom.
“He got stupid sometimes and did stupid things,” she added later under cross-examination.
“It was like falling down the stairs and tripping all over the house and looking stupid.”
Prosecutor Jordan Kerr said in his opening statement Monday that Sansom and Cardinal had gone moose hunting so they could stock the family’s freezer with meat while COVID-19 was shutting down the world.
He said the older Bilodeau saw the hunters’ truck drive slowly past his home and it looked like one that had been on his property that day. As he followed the hunters in his truck, Bilodeau called his son and asked her to follow him and bring a gun, the prosecutor said.
Security footage from a nearby gas station shows Bilodeau’s men in their trucks following Sansom and Cardinal in theirs, Kerr said.
The court heard Roger Bilodeau and the hunters first stopped their trucks on the highway. Anthony Bilodeau arrived shortly after. Within 26 seconds, he shot Sansom and then Cardinal as the hunter walked toward his truck, Kerr said.
A motorist called the RCMP after finding Sansom dead in the middle of the road and Cardinal’s body in a ditch.
Autopsies determined that Sansom was shot in the chest and Cardinal was shot three times in the left shoulder, Kerr said.
Defense attorney Shawn Gerstel said Anthony Bilodeau shot the hunters because Sansom broke a window in Roger Bilodeau’s truck and hit him. He also hit his youngest son, who was 16 at the time and was sitting in the passenger seat, the attorney said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Jason Katish took the witness stand and questioned the wording of the statements he gave police after the men were shot.
Katish said that Sansom and Cardinal came home unannounced after their hunt and skinned the moose at his home. They also came in for beers and burgers. They stayed until around 9:30 p.m.
In the police statement, Katish said Sansom yelled, cursed and behaved in an obnoxious manner that night. Katish disagreed with some of the characterizations in court.
“Sansom sure was getting rowdy,” Beresh said.
“Those were not my words,” Katish replied.
“It was getting loud and obnoxious,” Beresh said.
“It was getting noisy,” Katish replied.
Katish said later that night that they went to get more drinks from a friend.
“Glad to see these guys leaving because they were trouble, aren’t you?” Beresh asked.
“That’s false,” Katish replied.
“Look witness, we are not playing here. In their assessment, they were drunk. Is not correct?” Beresh asked.
“They felt good,” Katish replied.
Katish later testified that Sansom was drunk enough to stop feeling pain on “some level.”
The trial will continue on Wednesday.
This story was produced with the financial assistance of Meta and the Canadian Press News Fellowship.
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