Shooter in fatal 2006 Saskatoon home invasion sentenced to 11 years
Darren Greschuk lived two weeks after getting shot in the chest while confronting a man who had broken into his Avenue J home in the early morning of July 8, 2006.
The 31-year-old died long before police arrested a suspect.
It wasn't until Oct. 30, 2023, that investigators arrested and interviewed Albert Workman, who had since moved to British Columbia.
"By the end of the interview, he admitted to being the person who fired the gun that shot the victim and that it was an accident," said an agreed statement of facts presented in Saskatoon provincial court this week.
The judge accepted a joint sentencing submission for 11 years from prosecutor Andrew Clements and defence lawyer Nick Robinson.
The agreed facts say that at 4:13 a.m. on July 8, 2006, Saskatoon police received a 911 call from Greschuk that an unknown man "came into his house trying to rob him. He said the suspect shot him in the chest through the door as he was trying to push him out."
It took 18 years, and a pool of 26 suspects, before the case came together. And it came together because a third man identified Workman as the shooter. In April 2018, Robert Fischer came to Saskatoon police and said he wanted to talk about a homicide, according to the agreed facts.
"Robert Fischer told police that in July of 2006 Albert Workman came to Saskatoon from Calgary with him to rob some people and prior to their arrival they rented a 9mm Beretta for $250.… Fischer stated they met up with Bradley Mann who identified the victim for them as someone they could possibly rob."
Mann was also arrested and charged with manslaughter. He returns to court next month.
According to the agreed facts, Workman was abandoned by the others once inside Greschuk's house.
"The victim chased the accused through the house and while he was running out of the residence his knee got trapped in the door by the victim pushing it," the statement said.
"The accused pushed the door back and the gun went off through the door which struck the victim."
Police recovered two plastic crates with marijuana and hashish at the scene.
