Twenty-five years for fatal shooting over horse saddle

And a former basketball player is settling in at the Hattieville prison because that’s where he will spend the next twenty-five years of his life over a horse saddle. Thirty-three year old Stewart Sutherland was found guilty of the Manslaughter of Gary Gabourel on October fifth and today Justice Michelle Arana handed down the hefty sentence. That came after mitigation pleas, including a request by Sutherland for leniency and an apology to Topia Smith for killing her common-law-husband. Sutherland gave a caution statement admitting to shooting Gabourel with his sixteen gauge shotgun, but said it was in self-defense. Sutherland said that on March twenty-fifth, 2007, he visited Gabourel who had accused him of stealing a race horse saddle. According to the caution statement, Gabourel indicated that he was armed, and fearing that he would be shot out of revenge, Sutherland says he fired first and fled. But Smith had a different version of what transpired. She was one of ten witnesses called by prosecutor, Yohhahnseh Cave, to testify against Sutherland. She claimed that she and Gabourel were at their farm when Sutherland showed up and the two men got into an altercation. Smith says Gabourel sent her and their five children into the house, and by the time they got inside and she looked out a window she saw Sutherland draw his weapon and shoot her common-law-husband once. Smith told the court that during the confrontation, she heard the men arguing about money that Gabourel refused to give Sutherland.