A forensic identification officer testified Thursday about items found in a car and at a home involved in the 2022 homicide of James Swift.
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Bre McAdam • Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Published Jan 17, 2025 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 3 minute read
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Colton Robert Lischka, 31, and Ashtin Ritzand, 30, are on trial at Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench, charged with second-degree murder in the death of 40-year-old James “Ed” Swift in the RM of Corman Park on Aug. 29, 2022.Photo by Greg Pender /The StarPhoenix
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The second-degree murder trial of two men accused in the stabbing death of 40-year-old James “Ed” Swift has been adjourned until Monday after hearing evidence on Thursday.
The judge-alone trial of Colton Robert Lischka and Ashtin Ritzand began Jan. 13 and is scheduled for three weeks in Saskatoon Court of King’s Bench.
Swift was stabbed in the leg and left in a ditch on Range Road 3050, just off Penner Road in the RM of Corman Park, on Aug. 29, 2022. Court heard his friend Virginia Belhumeur was also stabbed, but was able to flag down a motorist for help early that morning.
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Along with second-degree murder, Ritzand, 30, and Lischka, 31, are also charged with the attempted murder of Belhumeur, and using violence to steal a cellphone.
Cpl. Christopher Janzen was with Warman RCMP at the time of the incident. He said Belhumeur was bleeding and holding her neck when he arrived at the scene just north of Saskatoon.
“Obviously she was in shock. I don’t think she really knew what happened at the time,” Janzen testified on Thursday.
During cross-examination, he said Belhumeur was emotional and struggled to answer his questions. He said he didn’t ask her if she’d consumed drugs or alcohol, and didn’t notice any signs of intoxication.
At the time of the arrests, police said the victims were in a white Honda Civic with three men when an altercation occurred on a rural road around 6 a.m.
Officers tracked the car to a Wendy’s parking lot in Saskatoon’s Willowgrove neighbourhood just before 5 p.m. Court watched police cruiser video of the ensuing chase, which ended when the driver stopped the car on Marlatte Street in the Evergreen neighbourhood and ran into a nearby home.
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Earlier in the week, officers involved in the chase testified that one man surrendered, and another man was found hiding under a pile of laundry in a basement suite. In court, they said they couldn’t definitively identify either man.
On Thursday, Cpl. Travis Dann with the RCMP forensic identification unit was questioned about items found in the Honda Civic and inside the basement suite.
He said a cellphone was stuffed between a mattress and box spring in a bedroom, and clothing was in the dryer, including a white, long-sleeved Guess brand shirt.
Lischka’s lawyer, Nicholas Stooshinoff, showed Dann a photo of Anthony Burley, a co-accused man who is still before the court. Dann said the shirt Burley wore was similar to the shirt found in the dryer.
He told Ritzand’s lawyer, Blaine Beaven, that Lischka’s passport was found in a bathroom cabinet. Beaven then showed Dann a photograph of a motorcycle club patch in a closet that read “Support 81.”
Stooshinoff asked Dann if he knew that “81” is a Hells Angels symbol. Dann said he wasn’t aware of that.
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