Rylen Heavenfire, who is free on bail, was not present in court for the scheduling appearance
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Published Feb 24, 2023 • 2 minute read
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Tsuut’ina resident Rylen Heavenfire will face an April 21 sentencing hearing for manslaughter in the fatal shooting of his brother during a drunken hunting outing.
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Defence counsel Steve Wojick appeared in Calgary Court of King’s Bench Friday to set the half-day hearing before Justice Michele Hollins.
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Heavenfire, who is free on bail, was not present in court for the scheduling appearance.
“We are setting a date for sentencing,” Wojick told Hollins.
Argument resulted in Rylen Heavenfire shooting his brother in the face
In September, a Calgary jury found Rylen, 23, guilty of manslaughter in the Oct. 25, 2019, fatal shooting of his brother, Randen.
Rylen had been hunting and drinking with his brother in woods near their grandparent’s home on the Tsuut’ina Nation not far from Bragg Creek, with his brother’s girlfriend and an uncle.
At some point the brothers got into an argument and Randen was shot once in the face with a shotgun blast from close range.
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Wojick had argued his client didn’t intend to fire the fatal shot and the killing shouldn’t have been deemed a criminal act.
But jurors accepted submissions from Crown prosecutor Vince Pingitore that Heavenfire’s actions amounted to manslaughter.
‘Firearms and alcohol do not mix well’
In his final argument, Pingitore said jurors didn’t have to find Rylen intended his brother’s death.
“You may conclude that the accused intentionally shot Randen Heavenfire, but that is not something that you have to decide in this trial,” he said.
But Pingitore told the jury that they should find the accused‘s severe intoxication, along with his careless use of the loaded shotgun he’d taken into the woods while drinking, amounted to manslaughter.
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“What you will distill from the evidence that you’ve heard in this case is one straightforward and clear conclusion, and that is that firearms and alcohol do not mix well,” he said.
“I will ask you to consider how a reasonable person in the circumstances of the accused would have handled a firearm on this day,” Pingitore said.
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