{"id":180679,"date":"2023-09-19T09:32:24","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T13:32:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/?p=180679"},"modified":"2023-09-20T09:54:59","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T13:54:59","slug":"prosecutor-says-drugs-had-major-role-in-murder-case-with-no-clear-motive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/prosecutor-says-drugs-had-major-role-in-murder-case-with-no-clear-motive\/","title":{"rendered":"Prosecutor says drugs had \u2018major role\u2019 in murder case with no clear motive"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Crown prosecutor Maurice Blanchard says that although there was no clear motive put forward in the convictions of Sean Patrick Patterson and Henry Pottie for their roles in the murder of Jamie Leard, he believes drug use was the underlying reason for the murder.<\/p>\n

On Friday, September 15, Henry Pottie was sentenced to nine years in prison for his role in the murder of Jamie Leard, minus some time to account for time served in remand and time served in solitary confinement. Friday\u2019s hearing was the final one regarding the tragic killing of 38-year-old Leard, who many remembered as a well-loved, quiet, and kind-hearted man.<\/p>\n

On May 2, 2023, Pottie pled guilty to manslaughter, admitting to a role in the confrontation that ended in Sean Patrick Patterson shooting Leard on May 25, 2021. He also admitted to helping dispose of Leard\u2019s body, concealing the crime, and misleading police and family members who were looking for Leard.<\/p>\n

Pottie has been held in remand since he was arrested on June 5, 2021. He was placed in segregation several times since then, as a result of the court\u2019s no contact order between himself and Leard\u2019s convicted murderer, Patterson. The court typically credits time served before conviction at a rate of 1.5 days for each day served, and Crown and defense lawyers agreed to an additional credit of 45 days to account for the time Pottie spent in segregation. If he served the full sentence, Pottie would remain in prison until February 27, 2029, roughly seven years and nine months from the time of his arrest.<\/p>\n

\u2018Senseless and needless tragedy\u2019<\/h2>\n

Judge Robert Dysart called the murder of Leard \u201ca senseless and needless tragedy,\u201d and extended sympathy to the Leard family. Jamie\u2019s mother Doris Leard and his uncle Michael Winter both submitted victim impact statements, but did not appear in court to read them. Doris Leard did appear at the sentencing hearing of Patterson in July, and read her statement then. Patterson pled guilty to second degree murder and was sentenced to 13 years before eligibility for parole.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis crime has resulted in terrible loss, the loss of life of Jamie Leard, and the criminal conviction and significant incarceration of Henry Pottie,\u201d Dysart told the court. \u201cTo the family and friends of Jamie Leard, I wish to express the court\u2019s sympathy for your loss. No sentence imposed by the court will ever bring back to a loved one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the sentence was handed down, Dysart asked Pottie if he wanted to address the court. \u201cI\u2019d like to say sorry to the Leard family for all the pain and suffering I\u2019ve caused to relatives, loved ones, friends,\u201d said Pottie. \u201cMy actions will haunt me till the end of my days.\u201c<\/p>\n

In his decision on sentencing, Dysart noted that Pottie had a difficult upbringing and has struggled with addiction to illegal drugs on and off from a very young age.<\/p>\n

No clear motive<\/h2>\n

No clear motive was ever put forward by prosecutors or defense attorneys to explain the killing of Jamie Leard, though the struggle to access illegal drugs was a recurring theme in testimony at Pottie\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n

After the hearing on Friday, Crown prosecutor Maurice Blanchard told CHMA that illegal drugs played a significant role. \u201cWe have a crystal meth epidemic in this area,\u201d said Blanchard. \u201cWe have that throughout Canada, but in this area right now, it\u2019s pretty bad. This drug is super strong. It\u2019ll make people do things without any inhibitions, with no thought of any consequences and no morality. So I think the drugs had a major role here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blanchard also acknowledged the remaining discrepancies in the versions of events given by Patterson and Pottie, and the other two partial witnesses at the scene. \u201cIt was one of those situations where all versions were different,\u201d said Blanchard, \u201cand we had to try and reconcile different versions together to figure out what happened.\u201d Blanchard said that there was very little physical evidence used in the convictions. \u201cAt the end of the day, we relied a lot on upon the statements of the accused themselves,\u201d he said. That added complexity and made the case more difficult for the family, he said, but in the end, \u201cI hope justice was served.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Crown prosecutor Maurice Blanchard says that although there was no clear motive put forward in the convictions of Sean Patrick Patterson and Henry Pottie for their roles in the murder of Jamie Leard, he believes drug use was the underlying reason for the murder. On Friday, September 15, Henry Pottie was sentenced to nine years…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":180683,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3265],"tags":[6473,16755,25337,30518,25339],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180679"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180679"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180679\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":180971,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180679\/revisions\/180971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/180683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180679"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180679"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180679"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=180679"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=180679"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}