The pickup truck involved in a fatal shooting near Eckville in 2022 had five bullet holes and tailgate damage that might have been caused by shots, a Red Deer court heard Tuesday.
A three-week trial began Monday in Red Deer Court of King's Bench for Dustin Charles Lemay-Storms, 36, who has been charged with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting death of Stephen Pond in the early hours of June 20, 2022.
Police have released few details about the June 20, 2022 fatal shooting. They said at the time, officers responded to a shooting call about 4 a.m. on Range Road 34 just north of Highway 11, about three km south of Eckville.
When police got there, they found a badly wounded Pond. He was airlifted by STARS to an Edmonton hospital, but died on the way there.
Lemay-Storms was arrested nine months after the shooting and charged with second-degree murder.
The victim's family says Pond was driving in his pickup on the rural road with his wife when a man appeared and fired several shots. Pond was hit but his wife was uninjured.
Pond and his wife were raising three children, aged three, four and eight at the time of his death. He also had a teenage son and daughter from a previous relationship.
RCMP investigator Cpl. Caroline Leduke testified on Tuesday that she and another investigator tested five holes in the front driver's side of the victim's F-150 pickup. Chemical tests of the bullet holes in the front quarter panel and driver's door found traces of metal "presumptive of lead."
Two small dents in the tailgate may also have been caused by bullets, Leduke said.
A June 22, 2022 search of a property near the site of the shooting turned up a plastic case of .22-calibre ammunition in a cow pasture. Other spent and intact .22-calibre rounds were found during a search of a trailer and attached shed on the property. Numerous sets of head lamps were also found.
Using a metal detector along the tire track route left by the pickup when it left the road and veered on to a property, Leduke also found what was believed to be a bullet fragment.
Lemay-Storms uncle Ron Darren Cunningham testified on Tuesday he lived near the trailer used by his nephew but could not see it from his home.
Defence lawyer Cody Ackland asked him if he knew if there were other people, possibly including his nephew's girlfriend, at the trailer at the time of the shooting.
"I don't remember anyone being there, but I could be wrong," he said.
He was asked if it was possible others were there.
"Yes, it's possible," he replied.
The trial before Justice Wayne Renke continues Wednesday.
