Two white Canadian men followed and then shot two indigenous hunters because they believed they were thieves, prosecutors told the court at the start of the Alberta murder trial.
Roger Bilodo, 58, and his son Anthony Bilodo, 33, pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder over the deaths of Jacob Sansom and his uncle Maurice Cardinal in March 2020.
The bodies of Sansom, 39, and Cardinal, 57, were found early March 28 near Sansom’s pickup truck on a country road near Glendon, a farming town 160 miles northeast of Edmonton.
Sansum had recently lost his job as a mechanic and worked as a volunteer firefighter. Cardinal was an avid hunter and outdoor enthusiast. Both were mestizos – a separate group that traces the origins of both indigenous peoples and European settlers – and were allowed to hunt the area out of season.
The killing of men returning from a successful moose hunt to help provide food for family members shocked the region.
Prosecutors told a jury in Edmonton on Monday that the two Bilodo followed the two hunters, suggesting the men were thieves. Roger Bilodo believed the hunter’s truck looked like a vehicle that had been on his property earlier that day.
As he followed the truck, Bilodo called his son and asked him to follow him from behind and bring a gun, Crown said.
Roger Bilodo and the hunters stopped their trucks on a country road near Glendon.
Anthony Bilodo arrived a few minutes later and prosecutors say he shot Sansom, then a cardinal. The audience concluded that Sansum was shot once in the chest and Cardinal was shot three times in the shoulder.
The Bilodoi then walked away without informing police or paramedics. The bodies of the two men – Sansom, lying in the middle of the road and Cardinal in a ditch – were found early the next morning by a driver.
“The killings were not justified in any way,” prosecutor Jordan Kerr said, adding that the younger Bilodo “was free to decide to arm himself” and persecute the two men. Roger Bilodo “clearly expected a confrontation” and therefore “recruited” his son to bring weapons, Kerr said.
But a lawyer for the Bilodeaus family says the men acted in self-defense amid fears of property crimes in the area.
Attorney Sean Gerstel told the jury that the village road collision escalated quickly that night and that Sansum smashed a window on Roger’s truck and hit him several times.
“[Roger] he asked for a protection pistol because he didn’t know who he was dealing with, “Gerstel said. The defense said the collar of Roger’s shirt was torn in half and Sansum’s blood was found on three pieces of Bilodo’s shirt.
The defense also claims that the hunters were drunk and medical experts are expected to testify that Sansom’s blood alcohol level is almost three times higher than the permissible level for driving. The Cardinal’s blood alcohol limit is almost twice as high as the legal driving limit, the defense said.
On Monday, Sansum’s brother James told the court that Jacob had been trained as a martial arts master and had the ability to reduce tense situations.
The process continues.
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