Witness issues weakened fatal shooting case
Crown, defence recommend 4½-year prison term for Joshua Kristopher Raines, 49, for manslaughter for firing shot that killed Lucas Richard Solomon Polchies in March 2023
A fatal-shooting case was pled down from second-degree murder to manslaughter in part due to evidentiary issues arising from a key witness tampering with the crime scene and from her murder, court heard Friday.
Joshua Kristopher Raines, 49, of Route 565 in Holmesville, located up river between Perth Andover and Florenceville-Bristol, was charged in the spring of 2023 with second-degree murder in the March 12, 2023, shooting death of Lucas Richard Solomon Polchies, 27.
However, last year, after Raines had served almost two years in custody, he pleaded guilty to the lesser, included offence of manslaughter, and he was released on conditions, including a requirement to wear and maintain an electronic-monitoring ankle bracelet.
He was due back in Fredericton provincial court Friday afternoon for a sentencing hearing.
