Sentencing waits in shooting case

By Delon Shurtz on June 2, 2021.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

A man who was scheduled to have a sentencing hearing this week for shooting his ex-spouse’s lover in the head just weeks before Christmas, now won’t be sentenced until later this summer.
Kyle Lewis Crow Chief was to have the hearing Thursday in Lethbridge provincial court, on charges of break and enter to commit aggravated assault, and discharging a firearm to wound, maim, disfigure or endanger life. On Thursday, however, court was told the sentencing hearing would need to be adjourned until July 20.
On Oct. 26 of last year, when Crow Chief pleaded guilty to the charges, the Crown explained Crow Chief was distraught over a split with his common-law spouse and entered her residence near Glenwood, where he caught her with another man and shot him in the head.
Crow Chief fled to Edmonton after the shooting during the early morning hours of Dec. 7, 2019, but was found several days later and charged with second-degree murder. The murder charge was withdrawn after the offender pleaded to the lesser charges.
Court was told Crow Chief and his former spouse, Sheena Sugai, had separated two months before the shooting, and Crow Chief had moved in with his brother while Sugai remained in her father’s home. After learning on Oct. 6, 2019 that his ex was in a relationship with Jesse Day Rider, Crow Chief went into her house about 2:20 a.m. the following day, entered Sugai’s bedroom and found her and 41-year-old Day Rider asleep in bed. He shot Day Rider in the head, then shot the unconscious man again in the shoulder.
Day Rider suffered a life-threatening brain injury and was taken by ambulance to Fort Macleod then transferred by the STARS air ambulance to Calgary. He remained on life support for several months and suffers from permanent and severe brain damage.
Crow Chief provided a statement to police after the incident and blamed Sugai for the shooting, claiming she had been unfaithful and had lied to him. He said had she been honest with him, he may have handled things differently.
Sentencing was adjourned following Crow Chief’s guilty pleas to allow time for the preparation of several assessments, which will help the judge determine a fit sentence.

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