BOYLE - An Athabasca-area man caught with multiple firearms he was not supposed to have will have to wait until the middle of June to learn his sentence after he was found guilty on multiple counts of possession of a prohibited firearm, and contravening firearms regulations.
Following a three-and-a-half-hour trial in Boyle Provincial Court March 14, Judge Robert Shaigec found Brett Jason Letki guilty of three counts each of possession of a prohibited firearm and contravening storage regulations — Crown prosecutor Ashlee Kirby withdrew 15 charges of possession of a prohibited firearm, and three charges of contravening storage regulations. Letki’s lawyer has asked for a pre-sentence report which will be presented when he’s sentenced June 13.
The charges stemmed from a Feb. 9, 2021, search warrant that was executed by Boyle RCMP officers in an attempt to locate a stolen vehicle, as well as the keys and identifying papers that were believed to be on the property.
During his summation, Judge Shaigec accepted the testimony of the RCMP officers, as well as part of the testimony from Letki’s fiancée. He agreed that the residence was the primary property of Letki, his fiancée, and her daughter, and that other family members were known to come and go throughout the year, but he rejected the idea that Letki’s fiancée had never seen the guns in question, calling it “untrue”, and “functionally impossible” to not have seen the firearms.
Kirby called four RCMP constables to the stand to give their testimony about the events that occurred during the search warrant; the officers mentioned guns stored in open cabinets, as well as crossbows displayed on a wall in the shed, and firearms littered around a work bench, one of which was later found to be loaded.
Letki’s defense lawyer Jay Brown tried to construct a counter narrative; the guns belonged to Letki’s father Ron Letki, who was the owner of the property, and a registered gun owner. He called his only witness, Letki’s fiancée. In her testimony, she said that Ron was known to stay for a “few days at a time” and kept clothes and other personal effects in the house. Brown argued that, while Letki and his fiancée were aware that guns were in the house, they believed that they were properly stored, with Letki’s fiancée saying “I never saw them. I knew that they were there, but I believed that they were kept in a safe.”
