NORTH BATTLEFORD – A Moosomin First Nation man was sentenced Friday to 15 years in prison on a manslaughter charge in the death of 20-year-old Damian Moosomin.
A joint submission between Senior Crown Prosecutor Jennifer Schmidt and defence Brian Pfefferle was entered before the court. The joint submission saw the withdrawal of the first-degree murder charge and a guilty plea entered on a manslaughter charge. Judge Michelle Baldwin sentenced Tye Partridge, who stood in the prisoner's box wearing an orange jail-issued sweatshirt and hung his head until his chin almost touched his chest.
Partridge also pleaded guilty to a charge of aggravated assault, and was sentenced to two years concurrent on that charge. A concurrent sentence means that it is served while he is serving another sentence and there's no additional time added.
With time served in remand, Partridge was given 641 days credit. This means he has 4,834 left to serve. Partridge has to serve half of his sentence before he is eligible for parole.
He was also given a lifetime weapons ban and ordered to provide his DNA to the National DNA Data Bank.
Following an 11-month investigation police arrested six people in connection to Moosomin’s murder. He was reported missing to police May 11, 2020, and his body was found five days later in the backyard of a home in the 1500 block of 105 Street in North Battleford. Police didn’t say how he died but called it a homicide.
Stormy Wapass-Semaganis, 24, from Edmonton is charged with first-degree murder. Melissa Semaganis, 42, from Poundmaker First Nation, is charged with accessory after the fact to murder.
Denver Roy, 37, from Sweetgrass First Nation, was charged with accessory after the fact to murder and indecent interference with a body. In November 2021, Roy pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of improperly interfering with human remains and sentenced to 300 days in jail. He was given 285 days credit for time served while in remand. That meant he only had 15 days left to serve. He was ordered to provide a DNA sample to the National DNA Data Bank.
Jannay Blackbird, 33, of Saulteaux First Nation, is charged with first-degree. Blackbird had a pre-trial conference in Battleford Court of Queen's Bench on May 20 and it was adjourned to June.
A young offender, who can’t be identified in accordance with the Youth Criminal Justice Act, was charged with accessory after the fact to murder.
Judge Baldwin issued a ban on the details of Roy's sentencing hearing until the remaining accused have gone through the court system. The charges against them haven’t been proven in court.
