Greg Fertuck disclosed murder of wife Sheree to undercover police at hotel in Saskatoon, officer testifies
Scenario 133 orchestrates meeting with fake crime boss
On June 21, 2019, Greg Fertuck met with a crime boss, a crooked cop, a crime scene cleaner and two of his criminal cronies in a sprawling suite at the James Hotel in downtown Saskatoon.
Fertuck didn't know it, but the supposed criminal players were in fact undercover RCMP officers and the suite was wired and sending a live audio-video feed to police in another downtown location.
"Greg described what he did to Sheree and what he did with the body after the homicide," the undercover officer who designed the entire operation testified Tuesday at Fertuck's first-degree murder trial.
The events of that day — logged in a binder as scenario 133 — flowed from a complex RCMP undercover sting called Project Fisten that had began almost a year earlier in the summer of 2018.
The objective was to find out what happened to Greg's wife Sheree, who disappeared on Dec. 7, 2015 after heading to work at a gravel pit near Kenaston, Sask. Greg was a suspect from the start because of a history of domestic violence and a fractious separation.
None of the officers can be named because of a court-ordered publication ban.
Tuesday was the second full day the veteran undercover officer testified for the Crown about how police convinced Greg that they were members of a sophisticated criminal organization and steered him to making the damning disclosure. It's a controversial police tactic known as a Mr. Big sting.
The officer's narrative has touched on how various RCMP operators revealed to Greg a criminal enterprise that featured loan sharking, corrupt border guards, stolen diamonds and passports, vehicles and high-stakes poker games.
He testified that they did so in the framework set out for Mr. Big stings in a Supreme Court decision, R vs Hart, while also dealing on the fly with the challenges posed by Greg's heavy drinking.
The police wanted Greg Fertuck engaged in the criminal enterprise but it had to be done soberly, and by his choice, the officer testified.
The officer also testified how the entire operation almost slipped away when Greg slipped on a patch of ice.
Uncharted territory
The undercover operation veered into uncharted territory when Greg suffered a near-fatal head injury mid-sting after slipping on a patch of ice outside a Saskatoon bar, the officer testified.
"Had something like this ever happened before," prosecutor Cory Bliss asked the officer.
"No," he replied.
How the officers designed and executed the sting is now front and centre at the trial in Court of Queen's Bench. Justice Richard Danyliuk is presiding over the judge-alone trial, now in its fifth week.
The sting involved 136 structured interactions, known as scenarios, between the summer of 2018 and late spring of 2019. The majority were audio recorded and key sessions were videotaped.
They were more than 70 scenarios into the sting when Greg slipped on the patch of ice outside Clark's Crossing bar.
'He may have passed in the house'
The fall happened on Jan. 1, 2019. The police learned of the spill through Doris Larocque, Greg's girlfriend and also a target in the sting.
Greg had been to the hospital but checked himself out against his doctor's orders that same day. The officer testified that Greg had two hematomas, or bruises inside his skull. Over the next several days, the operatives who had posed as Greg's criminal friends checked on him periodically to assess his health, and whether the sting could continue.
On Jan. 8, he testified they were called by Doris who said that Greg had fallen 'and was not well.' She said that he'd been on the floor for more than a day, had soiled himself and was refusing to return to hospital.
The undercover officers arrived and shortly called an ambulance, despite Greg protesting that he may never speak to them again.
"We were in a spot, there was no other option," the officer testified.
"He may have passed in the house. We made the call."
Greg ended up staying in hospital from Jan. 10 to Feb. 15.
Memory issues
The officer testified that a different Greg emerged from hospital.
He'd sworn off booze, had lost weight, had better mobility and was generally in better spirits, he said.
"Greg was inquisitive and observant, certainly more curious and switched on," he testified.
But he also had memory issues. The team's subsequent scenarios were structured to assess what he'd forgotten, and to reinforce key themes that had been introduced in the earlier interactions.
For instance, he testified that police wanted Greg to believe the criminal organization was large, sophisticated and powerful, but also forgiving. It placed a premium on members always telling the truth.
Mistakes were allowed and people could leave without fear of retribution, providing they were honest with each other, he said.
The officer said that Greg "didn't recall certain aspects of what we'd shown him," but that he wasn't sure whether to attribute that to the heavy drinking or the head injury.
It was critical that Greg see how the organization could assist members who had gotten into trouble.
Call the cleaner
On May 18, 2019, the operators initiated a chain of events designed to have Greg believe that a fellow gang member had killed his girlfriend. This was known as the "alibi scenario."
On previous meetings, the couple — both police officers — had bickered much like a couple in a failing relationship. The officer testified that it was set up to mirror Greg's relationship with Sheree, right up to suggestions of domestic violence.
That May day, Greg and another member picked up the gang's so-called cleaner, who specialized in removing evidence from crime scenes, from the airport. They went and met with the member whose girlfriend had been killed.
"Greg would have thought that she was seriously injured, probably killed, but he was not told that directly," the officer testified.
The pivotal point came when the member was sent to meet with the crime boss. The instructions were given in front of Greg.
"You've got to get yourself together, be a man," the officer testified.
"Tell him what happened, tell the the truth."
The goal was to have Greg appreciate the gang could clean up crime scenes — but they first had to know all about the crime.
Under pressure
On June 20, 2019 — the day before the meeting at the James Hotel — the operators enlisted Saskatoon Police to ratchet up the pressure. Uniformed officers knocked on the door of his house and drove by on his street.
"This was designed to raise awareness of the jeopardy faced by Greg in relation to the homicide," the officer testified.
They also manipulated it to appear they were following Greg and his criminal buddies. This was all happening on the eve of a major poker tournament sponsored by the gang, which was causing stress with the members.
On June 21, Greg and another member were supposed to travel to Calgary. After clearing airport security, just before boarding, the member took a call and told Greg they were being summoned back to a meeting with the crime boss.
When at the hotel, going up in the elevator, Greg's crime partner simply told him, "you have to tell him the truth."
The pit
After his disclosure about killing Sheree, the undercover police headed out to the gravel pit near Kenaston and then the area northeast to retrieve Sheree's remains and clean up the scene.
"The conditions were pretty rough, it was continually raining," the officer testified.
They never located her body.
They put Greg up in a hotel in the town of Allan that night, to prevent him from having second thoughts, and then returned to search the next day. And then again, the day after that.
They never found Sheree's body. But they did seize the boots and gloves Greg said he wore when he killed her, and a gun magazine.
Greg said he'd dumped the gun near Biggar, Sask., the officer testified.
The defence is expected to begin its cross-examination of the officer in the coming days. The Crown will be calling other undercover officers, and playing key audio and video from the sting.
The testimony so far is taking place in a voir dire, or trial within a trial, and Justice Danyliuk will need to rule on its admissability.
The trial, which began Sept. 7, resumes Wednesday and is scheduled for another three weeks.
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