Peter Kosid's life was priceless.

And yet, his family has had to settle on a price.

Four years after the young father was accidentally shot by a former NHL star in a hunting accident in Oshweken, Peter's family settled with Stan Jonathan's insurance company.

The out-of-court resolution happened this summer and avoided what was shaping up to be a contentious civil trial that would likely draw much media attention in part because of Jonathan's fame as a former Boston Bruins enforcer and because the case would highlight native hunting practices.

"I tried to get through this by thinking of it as a business transaction," says Peter's older brother, Brad Kosid. "But it was just another source of hurt."

The details of the settlement are confidential, says Brad, but the payout spared the family the pain of having to go through a trial in which the details of Peter's death would be examined.

"To go through it all again would have been difficult," says Brad.

Most home insurance policies will cover a hunter who causes an accidental death. However if a criminal conviction occurs, the policy is null and void.

Jonathan was initially charged with criminal negligence causing death and careless use of a firearm. But despite the insistence of Brantford's Crown attorney at a preliminary hearing to send the case to trial — which the judge did — the same Crown later withdrew all the charges without explanation and no trial took place.

That set the stage for Jonathan's insurance company to potentially cover the hunting accident.

The family was originally suing Jonathan (who despite his hockey career is not a wealthy man) for $1.4 million, most of it on behalf of Sabina Marone, Peter's fiancée. Sabina had a young daughter from a previous relationship when she met Peter and together they had just had a little boy. Sabina and Peter were planning a wedding when he was killed on Nov. 11, 2012.

The hunting accident was the subject of a long investigative piece called Intersect published last January in The Spectator. In it, I examined the forensics of the shooting as well as the laws of hunting off the reserve versus the virtual absence of hunting laws on the reserve.

Jonathan has never responded to The Spectator's interview requests.

Both Peter and Jonathan were deer hunting in Oshweken at sunrise.

Peter, who is not native, was bow hunting. Jonathan, who is native, was using a rifle.

Jonathan shot across a field after seeing a deer. He says he hit the deer and returned nearly an hour later with an ATV to pick up his kill. When he went out to the field he did not find a deer, but rather Peter's body. A forensic pathologist testified at the prelim that Peter died instantly.

Ironically, it was Peter who was in violation of hunting laws that day: he was bow hunting during rifle hunting season; he was not wearing blaze orange; he did not have the band council's permission to hunt on Six Nations; he was hunting alone when he should have been with a native.

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Jonathan violated no rules because none exist for natives hunting on the reserve. Had the regular Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry hunting rules applied, however, Jonathan would have been in the wrong for: firing from the road; not wearing blaze orange; not attaching a game seal to the deer immediately after the kill; rifle hunting in southern Ontario.

Brad says Sabina's children talk about Peter and there are photos of him all over their home.

He also says, that although Peter lived out west for a while, "This is now the longest I have ever been apart from my brother."