Judge orders Alberta man to stand trial for attempted murder of two Mounties

By The Canadian Press

CAMROSE, Alta. – A judge has ruled there is enough evidence to send a man to trial on charges of attempting to kill two Mounties in rural Alberta.

Sawyer Robison, 28, remains out on bail and is to appear in Wetaskiwin court on Jan. 14 to set a trial date. He also faces several weapons charges.

His lawyer, Brian Beresh, expects it may take a year or longer for the case to get to trial. But he said his client is eager for it to start.

“He’s looking forward to the day when he can establish his innocence,” Beresh said Friday following the court decision in Camrose.

Details from the preliminary hearing, and Judge David Plosz’s reasons, are subject to a publication ban.

Robison was arrested following a standoff on his family’s farm near Killam, about 160 kilometres southeast of Edmonton, in February 2012.

RCMP said at the time that four officers had gone to execute a search warrant on the farm, about 160 kilometres southeast of Edmonton. Two of the officers walked into a house on the property and shots were fired.

Constables Sheldon Shah and Sid Gaudette were struck, but made it back outside. They later underwent surgery and survived.

Police said they believed Robison was inside the house during the shooting, then drove off in a pickup truck.

Officers later found his uncle, Bradford Clarke, dead in the home and no one else inside.

Three days later, Robison was arrested peacefully on a rural road in the area after his parents made an emotional public plea asking him to come forward to police.

Months later, Mounties also charged Robison with second-degree murder charge in relation to his uncle’s death.

That charge was dropped during a preliminary hearing.

Alberta Justice said at the time that the Crown had reviewed new evidence from the RCMP related to Clarke’s death and determined there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction on the murder charge.

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