Facebook/Jordan Darchuk

By Aaron Schulze

hunting tragedy

P.A. man sentenced in hunting death

Apr 29, 2019 | 4:13 PM

A young man who accidentally shot and killed another hunter near Weirdale in 2017 will go to jail for seven months.

Austyn Adamko, 24, was sentenced Monday on charges of careless use of a firearm and carrying a firearm without a license in connection with the death of 23-year-old Jordan Darchuk. Both sentences will be served at the same time.

The incident happened in September of 2017. An agreed statement of facts presented in court said Darchuk was winding up a hunting trip south of Weirdale while Adamko was also out hunting with a friend at the same time. Adamko mistook Darchuk for an elk from afar, and as the final minutes of the hunting day came to a close, shot him in the chest.

Darchuk died at the scene.

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Mark Brayford, defence co-council for Adamko, said there was no right sentence in the case.

“You’ve got two families and groups of friends that have been horribly affected,” Brayford said. “The judge did an admirable job of trying to balance the many factors that just can’t solve a really tragic situation.”

A charge of criminal negligence causing death in the case was stayed at the conclusion of sentencing Monday afternoon. Speaking outside Melfort Provincial Court, Brayford agreed with the decision, saying the minimum jail term when a gun is involved is four years.

“There are so many different situations where that may or may not be the right sentence, so I was glad when that offence was not on the table, because that would have been the wrong sentence,” Brayford said.

Provincial Court Judge Lloyd Stang told Darchuk’s family Monday that there would be things in his decision that they won’t like, but that he had heard them during the sentence hearing on March 26.

Stang said Adamko qualified for rehabilitation due to having no previous criminal record, his early guilty plea, employment history, family support and his remorse over the incident.

Adamko will be on probation for two years following his release from jail. He must complete 150 hours of community service, pay more than $4,000 in restitution to Darchuk’s mother Leanne, and girlfriend Jerrica, and must observe a lifetime ban on having firearms, weapons or ammunition.

Brayford said the sentence is not something easy for Adamko to comprehend.

“You don’t know how this has happened because in his mind, he had seen an elk,” he said. “For it to be a person, that’s something he’ll live with forever.”

Brayford said an appeal of the sentencing decision hasn’t been discussed with Adamko yet.

Darchuk’s family declined to comment after the sentencing.

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aaron.schulze@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @SchulzePANow