Article content continued

However, the victim’s father, Walter Newman, said he feels Petrin got away with just a “slap on the wrist.” Gower’s sister, Tracy, also added that, while her brother was a drug addict, he was much more than that to his family.

The jury heard WBP affiliates Kyle Halbauer and Randy O’Hagan ambushed Gower after luring him to a supposed drug deal outside Lloydminster where Halbauer shot Gower in the head with a .357 Magnum. Both men are serving life sentences for the murder.

The jury also heard from both Halbauer and Petrin’s ex-girlfriend, Karissa Dow, that Petrin met with Halbauer near Lloydminster a few days before the killing and Halbauer testified Petrin supplied him with an AR-10 assault rifle and said it would help in his “mission.”

Halbauer also testified Petrin had directed in encrypted BlackBerry messages that Gower be killed for causing problems for drug runners with the gang, although he conceded that the supposed instructions simply said to “teach him a lesson.”

Petrin was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years after being convicted of first-degree murder in early November for the mistaken identity killing of Lorry Anne Santos, a 33-year-old mother of four who was shot and killed after she opened her door to strangers in Saskatoon on Sept. 12, 2012. Police said the gunmen had gone to the wrong house.

Petrin, who was also convicted at the same time of conspiracy to commit murder, was found to have set up the shooting. Court heard he wanted his former right-hand man killed for leaving the gang with money and drugs; however, they went to the wrong address.