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It’s been more than 17 years since a jury sat in courtroom No. 1 at Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench for Curtis Dagenais’s murder trial.
Since then, the courthouse has been expanded and renovated. Its name changed too, after the death of Queen Elizabeth II.
The third-floor courtroom itself looks a little different — the jury’s seats were relocated to the other side of the room and the windows no longer have an exterior view — but it was there, in March 2009, that a jury convicted Dagenais of two counts of first-degree murder and one count of attempted murder, for killing RCMP constables Robin Cameron and Marc Bourdages and wounding Const. Michelle Knopp.
He shot the officers on July 6, 2006, after Cameron and Bourdages chased him down rural roads before ramming his truck and dying in the shootout that followed. Knopp arrived moments later.
Dagenais appealed his convictions to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, which dismissed his appeal in a ruling issued in 2012.
For the last 20 years, the 1986 blue GMC 1500 truck that Dagenais was driving has been sitting in storage. Through an oversight, the Crown didn’t apply to have it forfeited until years later.
For prior hearings on the application, Dagenais appeared via video link from the Saskatchewan Penitentiary, where he is serving his three life sentences. He opposes the Crown’s application, saying the truck holds evidence that proves his innocence, which he still maintains, and that its parts have some monetary value.
A photo from Curtis Dagenais’s trial shows the RCMP vehicle that hit the side of his blue truck. (Geoff Howe/The Canadian Press)
On Monday, Dagenais was transported to the courthouse to appear in person, representing himself after he did not get a lawyer.
At first, the deputy sheriff seated the 61-year-old in the prisoner’s box, but when Justice Daryl Labach arrived and opened court, he asked Dagenais to come forward to the long tables where the lawyers sit, and for his leg shackles to be removed.
He then patiently explained the law to Dagenais and repeatedly asked him if there are any reasons why his truck shouldn’t be forfeited.
Dagenais gave a variety of answers, ranging from comments about ballistics and evidence, to comments about the rarity of parts for that make of truck.
He characterized the actions of the Crown as “kicking me in the shins” and taking away “another few dollars” that he can’t use to defend himself.
Crown prosecutor Scott Bartlett, one of the two Crown lawyers who prosecuted Dagenais at the 2009 murder trial, repeated the arguments he has made previously, that the truck is offence-related property and should be forfeited.
Labach is scheduled to give his decision on Dec. 4.
