Bre McAdam, Saskatoon StarPhoenix
The first trials have been set more than a year away for two men charged in the death of Saskatoon woman Megan Gallagher.
Roderick William Sutherland and Thomas Richard Sutherland have elected to be tried by a judge and jury at Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench. According to the court, Roderick’s trial has been scheduled for March 31, 2025 while Thomas’s trial has been scheduled for April 28, 2025.
Roderick Sutherland, 45, is charged with first-degree murder and offering an indignity to human remains. Thomas Sutherland, 43, is charged with manslaughter and unlawful confinement.
They were charged along with seven others after police received information that led to the discovery of Gallagher’s remains near St. Louis, Sask. on Sept. 29, 2022.
Gallagher, 30, had been missing since Sept. 20, 2020.
A direct indictment — which sends a case directly to the trial stage — was filed for both Roderick and Thomas Sutherland in October.
Thomas Sutherland was initially charged with aggravated assault, but was indicted on a manslaughter charge after Robert “Bobby” James Joseph Thomas’s preliminary hearing concluded in September.
Robert Thomas was the only accused to have a full preliminary hearing in Saskatoon provincial court. He was committed to stand trial for first-degree murder, but his trial has not yet been scheduled, according to the court.
During Robert Thomas’s prelim, the Crown stayed aggravated assault and unlawful confinement charges against Robin Tyler John. The charges will be dropped if new evidence doesn’t arise within a year.
In November, the last direct indictments were filed against Summer-Sky Jodylynn Henry and Cheyann Crystal Peeteetuce, sending them to trial on first-degree murder charges.
Jessica Faye Badger, Ernest Vernon Whitehead and John Wayne Sanderson were sentenced last year after pleading guilty to offering an indignity to human remains.
