Supreme Court of Canada rejects Saskatchewan hit-man murder appeal

OTTAWA — The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear the appeal of a gang leader who was behind a botched hit in which a mother of four was killed when she opened her front door.

Lorry Ann Santos was shot by two gunmen in the entryway of her Saskatoon home in September 2012.

Joshua Dylan Petrin wanted to appeal his conviction for first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in the planned killing gone wrong.

A judge found him guilty in 2016 and sentenced him to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Petrin unsuccessfully challenged the conviction in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal a year later.

Petrin had argued his case should be retried because payments made by police to some witnesses weren’t disclosed and the trial judge didn’t take enough account of credibility issues with certain testimony.

Petrin, who is from Edmonton, was a high-ranking member of the White Boy Posse that ran a drug-dealing operation in Alberta and the Northwest Territories, but had started making inroads into Saskatchewan.

He asked two of his associates to “take care” of his right-hand man, who was planning to walk away from the gang without Petrin’s permission.

The hit men went to the wrong address and killed Santos by mistake. They were eventually convicted and given life sentences.

As is usual, the Supreme Court gave no detailed reasons for its decision.

During Petrin’s trial, Santos’s husband, Ferdinand, told court what happened the morning his wife was killed.

He said they were going about their morning routine and eating breakfast around 6 a.m. while their children were still asleep. He moved to the master washroom to get ready for work and his wife, who was on maternity leave, laid down on the bed in the next room with their infant child.

Santos testified that he didn’t recall hearing the doorbell, but he did hear loud gunshots that sounded as though they were inside the house. He left the washroom and saw the baby was still on the bed. His wife wasn’t there.

He told court he went into the hall and saw his wife face down and bleeding from a wound in her back. Their oldest daughter called 911 as he turned his wife over and tried to get a response.

He didn’t get one.

Police and paramedics arrived and took Lorry Santos away on a stretcher. It was the last time her husband saw her.

She was pronounced dead in hospital at 6:54 a.m. that morning.

The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version said Petrin was from Saskatchewan.