’Picture emerged’: judge finds man guilty in 2022 hotel bar shooting death

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This article was published 10/09/2024 (749 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man who fatally shot a 39-year-old in the back in the bar of the Marlborough Hotel more than two years ago has been found guilty of second-degree murder.

Court of King’s Bench Justice Shauna McCarthy found Christopher Bone, who’s in his early 30s, guilty of shooting 39-year-old Ryan Spence just before midnight on April 30, 2022, in a lengthy written decision issued late last month.

Spence was rushed to hospital from the hotel bar and later died of three gunshot wounds to the back and one to the arm.

Evidence given at trial indicates the two men argued at the establishment’s bar, with Spence insulting Bone, before Spence was escorted out by security twice.

When Spence returned to the bar a few minutes after he was kicked out the second time, Bone pulled out a rifle from a backpack and shot Spence, as witnessed by a security guard who had dealt with the two of them.

The guard testified the shooter immediately put the gun back in the bag and fled to the Ellice Avenue door, shouting for another man in the bar to flee with him and grab the backpack.

Bone’s lawyers, Kristen Jones and Patrick Gutowski, argued the case presented by Crown prosecutors Amy Wood and Jacqueline Briard was largely circumstantial, with inconsistencies in the evidence given by eyewitnesses, the judge wrote in her decision.

Among those who gave testimony were four hotel employees who were present in the bar, as well as a karaoke business owner and a cab driver who knew Bone and drove him to the hotel that night.

The prosecutors argued the evidence established beyond a reasonable doubt Bone was the shooter, with any inconsistencies in the testimony minor.

McCarthy said in her view, it was not a circumstantial case, noting the evidence came from witnesses who saw “various aspects” of the events that led to the shooting and was corroborated by fingerprints and video surveillance from the hotel’s entrance, a nearby apartment and the cab Bone rode in. There were no cameras inside the bar.

“When the dust settled and various people who had been present were able to describe what they had witnessed that evening a picture emerged which made it clear in my view that the accused, Christopher Bone, was the individual who shot and killed Mr. Spence,” wrote McCarthy.

The defence also argued, if court found the Crown had proven beyond a reasonable doubt that Bone was the shooter, that there was sufficient evidence to reduce the verdict from murder to manslaughter on the basis Bone was provoked into committing the crime.

The defence lawyers argued, after Spence returned to the bar for a second time, that Bone acted suddenly in response and lost self control.

Spence had thrown a water bottle in the bar at one point — though it’s not clear if it was at Bone or if he was even aware of it — and pounded on the windows from the outside.

McCarthy didn’t buy that argument, either.

“The Crown has established beyond a reasonable doubt that Mr. Spence’s conduct was not sufficient to deprive an ordinary person of self control, and also that Mr. Bone did not shoot Mr. Spence as a direct and passionate response to a provocation,” wrote McCarthy.

“The evidence suggests that Mr. Bone was making conscious decisions about his actions.”

Lawyers are expected to reconvene to discuss a date for Bone to be sentenced in October. The minimum sentence for second-degree murder is life in prison without the ability to apply for parole for 10 years, though the period of parole ineligibility can be increased up to 25 years.

erik.pindera@freepress.mb.ca