Roderick Sutherland has been found guilty of manslaughter in connection with the 2020 murder of Megan Gallagher.
A 12-person jury at Court of King’s Bench in Saskatoon returned its verdict Friday afternoon, its second day of deliberations. Jurors also found Sutherland guilty on charges of unlawful confinement and offering an indignity to human remains.
Gallagher’s family and friends sat in the front row and gasped, sobbed and hugged as the jurors delivered their verdicts, one by one, to Justice John Morrall.
The decision ends a legal journey for her family that began five years ago when the 30-year-old disappeared under suspicious circumstances.
Police believed within months of her September 2020 disappearance that she had been killed. It wasn’t until two years later that her remains were found on the bank of the South Saskatchewan River, about 105 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon, near the village of St. Louis.
During the trial, the jury heard graphic details about Gallagher’s death — she was tied to a chair, assaulted and ultimately killed by a group of people in a Saskatoon garage on Sept. 20, 2020.
Nine people were eventually implicated in her disappearance and death.
Robert (Bobby) Thomas was the first person charged, on Sept. 20, 2022. He pleaded guilty in October 2024 to second-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 18 years.
Cheyann Peeteetuce and Summer-Sky Henry were both charged with first-degree murder, but pleaded guilty to manslaughter in January 2025 and were sentenced to seven years each.
Ernest Vernon Whitehead, Jessica Badger (Sutherland) and John Wayne Sanderson pleaded guilty to offering an indignity to human remains.
Charges against Robin John (unlawful confinement and aggravated assault) and Thomas Sutherland (manslaughter) were stayed before coming to court.
Roderick Sutherland’s trial began Oct. 6. During closing arguments on Tuesday, defence lawyer Blaine Beaven argued that Sutherland had found himself in a situation that got out of hand, and tried to stop the people in the garage after Gallagher was tied up.
The Crown argued that even though Sutherland wasn’t the person who killed Gallagher, it was Sutherland’s garage where she was confined, and Sutherland was involved from start to finish.
Following the verdict, both the Crown and defence said they would need time to prepare their sentencing arguments.
Crown prosecutor Bill Burge indicated he would be making a request for Sutherland’s release to be cancelled and for him to be taken into custody, a request that the lawyers will make arguments on later Friday afternoon.
