IQALUIT, Nunavut - An 11-member jury was expected to resume deliberations on Tuesday in the trial of a Nunavut man charged with first-degree murder for the slaying of a Mountie in a tiny Arctic community on Nov. 5, 2007.
The five women and six men did not reach a verdict after deliberating for over five hours on Monday and Justice Robert Kilpatrick ordered that they be sequestered for the night.
They began their deliberations on Monday afternoon after hearing closing arguments and instructions from the judge in the case of Pingoatuk Kolola, 39, who is charged with killing Const. Douglas Scott with a fatal shot to the head.
Kilpatrick's instructions to the jury lasted over 90 minutes as he described the legal steps they must take in determining the level of intent Kolola had in fatally shooting the officer.
He outlined their options, telling jurors they must evaluate that intent to decide between first-degree murder and manslaughter.
Kilpatrick also noted that Inuit people are well known for their ability to reach a consensus, saying, "this is what the Inuit have done for thousands of years."
About three hours after deliberations began, jurors came back into court to ask the judge if they could examine trial transcripts detailing the testimony of five unidentified witnesses, a request he granted.
During final arguments, Kolola's defence lawyer, Andy Mahar, said his client was too drunk to form the intent to kill the constable, who was shot while he sat in his police vehicle.
Scott had been dispatched to check out a report of a drunk driver in the tiny hamlet of Kimmirut.
"There are no monsters here," Mahar told jurors as he summed up defence arguments.
He called Kolola an "angry, suicidal drunk" but said his actions that night were "messy and unpredictable".
Court heard that a distraught Kolola was driving around the community with his baby son after fighting with his common-law wife. The officer had come upon Kolola, whose vehicle had become stuck after he drove onto some construction supplies.
Kolola testified that he didn't deliberately aim at Scott and just wanted to scare him away.
"He's not a hit man or a psychopath," Mahar said of the accused. The shot that Kolola fired was a "rash, impulsive act", the defence lawyer said.
Susanne Boucher, the Crown prosecutor, dismissed the notion that Kolola was too drunk to form the intent to kill the RCMP officer.
She noted that Kolola had left his home in an angry rage with a rifle. She also dismissed Kolola's assertions on the witness stand that he was not aiming at Scott when he fired the fatal shot and just wanted to scare the officer away.
"This so-called warning shot went into Const. Scott's head," Boucher told jurors.
She again went over the Crown's argument that Kolola was a decorated marksman who had trained with the Canadian Rangers, a northern branch of the military. She also said Kolola was an experienced hunter and was used to handling weapons.
At the opening of the trial earlier this month, Kolola tried to plead guilty to manslaughter, but that was rejected by the judge.
