Robby Polchies found guilty of first-degree murder

A Kingsclear First Nation man has been found guilty of first-degree murder in the 2019 death of Corey Sisson.

Robby Polchies, 34, was accused of fatally shooting 19-year-old Sisson on a wooded trail in Noonan, close to Fredericton, on July 29, 2019.

He was charged with first-degree murder, meaning the Crown needed to show that Polchies intended to kill Sisson and that the act was both planned and deliberate. 

In his instruction to the jury, Court of Queen's Bench Justice Terrence Morrison said there was no doubt that Sisson was killed and that his body was found in Noonan.

Jury members were told they had three options — to convict Polchies of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or to find him not guilty.

It took jurors more than 18 hours over three days to deliberate. They delivered their decision before noon Sunday. 

Throughout the trial, Polchies's girlfriend at the time testified to witnessing the alleged murder, but the defence submitted that Jahradd Williams was an untrustworthy witness. She said she could not recall what she had told police previously several times during her testimony. 

Crown prosecutor Rodney Jordan had told the jury in his closing arguments the trial had been "a tale of two trucks."

The first truck, a 2015 Dodge Ram, belonged to Sisson's mother. The court heard that Sisson and O'Hara stole the truck on the morning of the 29th with the intention of selling it.

That morning, Sisson, O'Hara and Polchies landed on Green's doorstep.

The four of them smoked crystal meth and then split up. Green went with O'Hara and Sisson went with Polchies. According to Green, Polchies was mad that Sisson had told people about the stolen truck. 

Green and O'Hara went to Green's former girlfriend's house on the north side to help her move a vehicle on her property, then to Ringo's Bar and Grill on Smythe Street, where O'Hara conducted a drug deal.

Meanwhile, Polchies and Sisson got in the second truck, a GMC Sierra belonging to O'Hara. They picked up Williams, Polchies's girlfriend at the time, drove to a dirt road in Noonan, and then walked 101 metres down a trail, where according to Williams, Polchies shot Sisson twice with a shotgun.

The Crown submitted that Polchies had a motive — he wanted Sisson's share of the profit from the stolen truck and the stash of drugs he had, and that he had access to a shotgun and the know-how to use it.