Appeal denied for Regina man convicted in shooting death

File photo of the Court of King's Bench Court House in Regina. (Colton Wiens/CTV News)

A Regina man convicted in a 2018 shooting death has lost his appeal.

In 2021, Austin Thomas Yates was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years for his part in the death of Miguel Lucas Antoan Lane.

Officers were called to the 2800 block of Sinton Avenue on Oct. 23, 2018 for a firearm call. Lane was found with a gunshot wound to his leg and was taken to hospital where he died of his injuries the next day.

Yates and his friend had discussed robbing Lane to get drugs, according to the facts outlined in the decision. To do that, Yates needed a vehicle, so he got Kayle George to help him, the decision said.

Yates reached out to Lane under the pretense of a drug buy, according to the document, luring Lane from a restaurant into George’s vehicle. Yates drove the vehicle while George sat in the backseat with Lane. George had a gun, which he threatened Lane with.

Following a struggle inside and then outside the vehicle between George and Lane, Lane was shot in the leg and was left alone on the street. He was taken to hospital and died of his injuries the next day.

Yates and George had been originally charged with second-degree murder in the death, but they both pleaded guilty to the lesser offence of manslaughter.

Yates' attempted appeal hinged on the unexpected departure of his first lawyer, and how it may have affected the outcome.

However, the Court of Appeal believed Yates' conviction still held up.

"The sole issue at trial was whether Mr. Yates, who had planned and participated in the robbery, was guilty of manslaughter as a party to the offence. The trial judge relied on s. 21(2) of the Criminal Code to convict Mr. Yates on the premise that he had formed a common intention with Mr. George to rob Mr. Lane with a firearm and that Mr. Lane’s death was a probable consequence of carrying out that common purpose," Justice Lian Schwann wrote in the decision.

The trial judge had said that while Yates didn’t pull the trigger, he knew George had brought a loaded gun with him to the robbery.

“Taking into account the findings of fact made by the trial judge, the conviction is clearly sustainable," Schwann wrote.

Further, the Crown said that although Yates is entitled to raise his ground on an appeal, it should be dismissed “because he took no steps to have the Counsel Decision reviewed or overturned in the two-year period preceding trial or to raise the matter with the trial judge.”

In short, the Crown said Mr. Yates was “seemingly content with the conclusion that [Counsel] could not act for him because she was in a conflict of interest position.”