Nunavut Mountie's killer guilty of murder

An Iqaluit jury has found Pingoatuk Kolola guilty of murdering an RCMP officer in a remote Nunavut community more than two years ago.

The 11 jurors in the Nunavut Court of Justice trial convicted Kolola, 39, on Thursday of first-degree murder in the Nov. 5, 2007, shooting death of Const. Douglas Scott in the eastern Arctic community of Kimmirut.

Scott, 20, was shot while responding to a drunk-driving complaint in the remote Baffin Island hamlet, located 120 kilometres south of Iqaluit.

Kolola admitted to firing the rifle shot that killed Scott, but maintained it was an accident. Defence lawyers asked the jury to convict Kolola on the lesser charge of manslaughter.

Jurors wept

Muted cheers and sobs were heard in the courtroom as the verdict was read aloud shortly after 1:30 p.m. ET. Jurors were seen weeping loudly as the sheriff led them out of courtroom afterward.

Seven of the 11 jurors came from Kimmirut, a close-knit hamlet of about 400 residents where Kolola had lived most of his life. The remaining jurors were selected in Iqaluit.

Justice Robert Kilpatrick said the verdict reflected the quality of justice in the jurors' hearts and in their own community.

Outside court, defence lawyer Andrew Mahar said Kolola's trial was the saddest case he's worked on in his 15 years as a lawyer in Nunavut.

"A family lost a lovely young man. Another family lost their father — six kids — all for a moment of basically pointless violence," Mahar told reporters.

"There's just no happy ending to this for anybody."

Kolola's sentencing hearing is scheduled for Friday morning. A first-degree murder conviction carries an automatic life sentence with no parole eligibility for at least 25 years.

The trial began Feb. 22 at the Iqaluit courthouse with 12 jurors, but one member was later excused. The remaining jurors had been sequestered since Monday afternoon.

Mountie in North 6 months

During deliberations, jurors came back to the court three times to request transcripts of testimony from various witnesses.

Scott hailed from Lyn, a community near Brockville, Ont. He had been posted in the North for only six months when he was killed, according to the RCMP.

Members of Scott's family, who sat through the trial in Iqaluit, said they were "very pleased" with the verdict.

"Although it will never reverse the loss of Dougie, it is a comfort to know that the person responsible has been held accountable to the extent of the law," his mother, Marla Scott, said in a prepared statement to reporters.

"It is our hope that this will serve as a strong statement to those who put so little value on the life of a fellow human being."

Scott's father, Doug Scott Sr., said the most difficult part of the trial was facing Kolola every day in court.

"He sat there so calmly and didn't show any emotion or any regret. That just showed the character he was," the elder Scott said.

Marla Scott thanked RCMP and prosecutors, as well as those who "gathered the strength to do the right thing in coming forward to assist the justice system to achieve a conviction."

"We continue to feel the strength of family, friends, community and an amazing country in coping, to move forward with our lives," she said.

Scott's death, along with the slaying of an RCMP officer in Hay River, N.W.T., a month earlier, prompted the national police force to review its backup policy for remote locations.

Both Scott and 30-year-old Const. Christopher Worden, who was gunned down Oct. 6, 2007, were killed while responding alone to calls for assistance. Emrah Bulatci, 25, was convicted in November of first-degree murder in Worden's death.

Shot while seated in vehicle

During Kolola's trial, court was told that Scott was sitting in his parked RCMP truck when he was shot in the head through the vehicle's passenger-side window.

A distraught and suicidal Kolola had been driving drunk around Kimmirut following a fight he'd had with his common-law wife, who had threatened to have him evicted from their house.

Kolola took their eight-month-old son, Adam, with him as he drove the local housing association's truck recklessly around the hamlet until the vehicle became stuck at a local construction site.

Kolola said he had meant to fire a warning shot to scare away the Mountie, who was approaching him in the RCMP truck.

One Kimmirut witness said he saw Kolola holding the baby in one arm and a rifle in the other as he fled the construction site. Other witnesses testified that Kolola later admitted to killing Scott.