Charles Shatford and Donald Walker were found guilty of first-degree murder by a jury in Saint John on Thursday afternoon.
Shatford, 49, and Walker, 52, were charged with the Aug. 17, 2022, murder of Justin Breau, 39.
The jury sent word just before 2 p.m. on Thursday that they had reached a verdict — after nearly 11 hours, over two days, of deliberations.
Walker showed no emotion when the verdict was read, while Shatford loudly expelled a held breath when he was declared guilty by the jury foreperson.
That brings to six the total number of people convicted in Breau’s death.
Four others were previously sentenced after pleading guilty to a variety of lesser charges. All were initially charged with first-degree murder.
Throughout the trial, the jury heard references to a third man in the apartment with Shatford and Walker, but they didn’t hear his name or what role he was alleged to have played. That man was Evan Louis Tobias.
In August, less than a month before the trial began, Tobias, 30, was sentenced to eight years in prison after pleading guilty to manslaughter in Breau’s death. Tobias admitted going into Breau’s apartment and stabbing him in the leg multiple times.
In May, Donald Walker’s 26-year-old son, Dustin Trey Walker-Hammond, was sentenced to two years less a day for manslaughter for his role.
In April, Travis Earl Boudreau, 34, and Sarah Jean Belzil, 37, pleaded guilty to being accessories. They were both given a one-year conditional sentence to be served in the community. Boudreau had spent 22 months in jail awaiting trial and Belzil 7½ months.
Over nearly five weeks, the jurors heard from 20 witnesses. Although neither Walker nor Shatford testified, the jury heard from them through videos collected by the Saint John Police Force during their investigation — and decidedly more from Shatford.
Over several hours of videotaped interviews with police, Shatford initially remained adamant that he had nothing to do with Breau’s death. He said he had never been in Breau’s apartment and didn’t even know where it was.
Eventually, however, Shatford admitted to being in Breau’s apartment and stabbing him, but said it was in defence of Walker. Shatford said Breau attacked Walker as soon as they walked in the apartment.
Walker, meanwhile, was placed in the apartment by Breau’s girlfriend Megan Ross, who was in the room when Breau was stabbed. She initially told police that three masked men burst into their apartment and immediately began stabbing Breau. She said all three men stabbed him and that he didn’t have a chance to react.
She told the investigator that she wasn’t able to identify any of the men, but less than an hour later, she told Breau’s mother that Walker was one of them.
Outside the courtroom after the verdict, Susanne Breau said she was glad the trial was over, “but it’s got a finality to it, you know your son’s not coming back.”
While content with the convictions of Shatford and Walker for first-degree murder, she thinks the others got off too lightly.
“What annoys me is that four other people got away with next to nothing,” said Breau.
“They knew. They could have stopped it and they didn’t. They did nothing to help.”
Shatford and Walker will be sentenced on Dec. 18. Both men waived pre-sentence reports.
