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‘As it might be obvious to you by Mr. Giffen’s willingness to plead guilty to manslaughter this morning, it’s not at issue whether Mr. Giffen fired the round’
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The fatal hunting rifle shot that pierced the chest of a Siksika man as he fled an armed assailant in a friend’s pickup was fired by his accused murderer, the man’s lawyer acknowledged Monday.
But defence counsel Derek Jugnauth will argue the killing of Kristian Ayoungman at the hands of Brandon Giffen was manslaughter.
Jugnauth attempted to plead guilty to that charge at the commencement of his client’s scheduled three-week trial in Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench.
But Crown prosecutor Ron Simenik rejected the plea to the lesser offence, saying he and co-counsel Lynda Levesque will proceed to try to prove Giffen is guilty of murder.
“As it might be obvious to you by Mr. Giffen’s willingness to plead guilty to manslaughter this morning, it’s not at issue whether Mr. Giffen fired the round,” Jugnauth said.
“What’s at issue is his state of mind.”
Giffen is charged with first-degree murder in the March 17, 2019 death of Ayoungman, also known as White, on a rural highway near Strathmore.
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In detailing the Crown’s case in a brief opening address, Levesque said the shooting was the culmination of a bar altercation that occurred over the sale of a pack of cigarettes.
She told Justice Robert Hall that Ayoungman was with a group of friends, as was Giffen’s brother, Kody, with his own group, at the King Eddy Pub in Strathmore, east of Calgary.
At closing time, around 3 a.m. Kody Giffen was looking for cigarettes, and Ayoungman offered to sell him a pack for $20.
But Giffen became angry it wasn’t a full pack and a confrontation ensued, Levesque said.
Giffen’s group soon left and went to his brother’s nearby apartment complex, she said.
But a short time later Breanna Crawler, who was their driver, arrived at the same location to drop off a friend and a second encounter took place, this time with Brandon Giffen involved.
“Brandon Giffen ran into his main floor apartment, grabbed one of his hunting rifles and ran to the parking lot,” Levesque said.
Ayoungman, Crawler and two others got into her Dodge pickup and “fled fearing for their lives.”
“The Giffen brothers quickly got into Kody’s white Volvo and pursued the truck,” Levesque told Hall.
She said Kody drove while Brandon sat beside him with the rifle in his hands.
“Breanna tried to evade the Giffens and the rifle fleeing through the streets of Strathmore and onto Hwy. 817 south of the town.”
At one point Kody pulled over, Brandon got out and fired a shot at the pickup, which pierced its tailgate, a hockey bag, the cab of the vehicle and the passenger seat before striking the victim in the chest.
At Kody Giffen’s sentencing hearing in March for manslaughter with a firearm, the victim’s mother, Melody Ayoungman, said her son was hunted down like a frightened animal.
The trial is scheduled for three weeks.
KMartin@postmedia.com
On Twitter: @KMartinCourts
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