Saskatoon judge expected to rule Friday on whether to admit Greg Fertuck murder confession as evidence
CBC
A Saskatoon judge is expected to rule Friday on whether to admit into evidence a videotaped confession that Greg Fertuck made to undercover police where he described murdering his wife in 2015.
Fertuck is shown on the June 21, 2019, recording acting out shooting Sheree Fertuck at a gravel pit near Kenaston, Sask., four years earlier.
Sheree Fertuck vanished on Dec. 7, 2015. The 51-year-old's body has never been found. Greg Fertuck was charged with first-degree murder in 2019. His judge-alone trial began in September 2021 at what was then Court of Queen's Bench.
Since then, the Crown has presented its case in a voir dire, or trial within a trial. Today, Justice Richard Danyliuk will rule how much of the voir dire evidence to admit in the trial proper.
The Crown's case turned on admissions Fertuck made to RCMP officers that were pretending to be criminals as part of a so-called Mr. Big sting operation. Fertuck maintained at trial that he made up the story about killing his wife because he was afraid.
The trial went through numerous delays, including Fertuck deciding to represent himself after a falling out with his defence team in October 2022 and then applying successfully to re-examine witnesses that had already been questioned.
Fertuck also slipped on a patch of ice and suffered a serious head injury midway through the RCMP sting. That accident prompted officers to re-evaluate the merit of continuing.
The key to whether Justice Danyliuk admits the findings into evidence will be whether police followed the guidelines set out by the Supreme Court on Mr. Big stings.
RCMP played out 136 structured interactions, known as scenarios, between the summer of 2018 and late spring of 2019 in the Greg Fertuck operation.
Various undercover operators gradually revealed to Greg a fictional criminal enterprise that featured loan sharking, corrupt border guards, stolen diamonds, vehicles and high-stakes poker games.
It culminated in Greg making his disclosure to an undercover officer on June 21, 2019, that he killed Sheree and then dumped her body.
Fertuck's former lawyers cross-examined some of the undercover officers, focusing heavily on how well Fertuck recovered from his head injury. Whether he was of an "operating mind" when police manouevered him into the confession is expected to play prominently in whether Justice Danyliuk admits the Mr. Big evidence.
The decision comes down at 2 p.m. CST at Court of King's Bench.
This First Person column is the experience of Shannon Flaman, who lives in Red Deer, Alta. For more information about CBC's First Person stories, please see the FAQ.
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