‘Fitting’ sentence length ordered for accused in Gallagher homicide | 24CA News
“Megan, where are you?”
Those have been the phrases learn again and again by Brian Gallagher in Saskatoon provincial court docket on Wednesday, directed at 42-year-old Earnest Whitehead.
Whitehead was accused in reference to the homicide of Megan Gallagher, Brian’s daughter, and confronted her household and buddies for the primary time on Wednesday throughout his sentencing listening to.
Brian known as out his daughter’s identify by way of tears whereas he learn a poem written in regards to the two-year-long seek for her.
He requested Whitehead to exchange Megan’s identify with that of his personal 14-year-old daughter’s who was sitting within the courtroom.
“All I have today are memories,” Brian stated to Whitehead. “All I have today are pictures.”
Gallagher disappeared in September 2020. Nine individuals have been charged in her homicide after her stays have been discovered close to the St. Louis River in November 2023.
Saskatoon police investigations confirmed Gallagher had been killed in a storage at 709 Weldon Ave. on Nov. 24, 2020, the place Whitehead lived.
Whitehead was the primary accused in Gallagher’s homicide and charged with providing indignity to human stays after serving to get rid of her physique.
On Wednesday, Whitehead was sentenced to 2 years and 7 days of jail time.
It’s the identical period of time that handed between the day Gallagher when lacking and when her stays have been discovered.
Brian stated the size of time was becoming.
Eleven of Gallagher’s relations and buddies sat eye-to-eye with Whitehead in an overflowing courtroom to inform him of the ache that his actions have prompted them.
An announcement of the info instructed the court docket that Whitehead noticed Gallagher tied to a chair in his storage on Nov. 24 after which dragged away.
He claimed the following time he noticed her, she was useless.
With the assistance of John Wayne Sanderson, the 2 wrapped her physique in a tarp and drove her to the St. Louis bridge the place they threw her into the river.
Sanderson was sentenced to a few years in jail on March 1.
“You kept the secret for two years while the rest of the world suffered,” Brian instructed him. “One of the only consolations that we have is that you returned Megan to the homeland.”
“Every single day for over two years, we died a little,” Gallagher’s stepmother Debbie learn in her assertion.
“One day, you are going to have to answer to higher authorities.”
Whitehead solely started crying when somebody he knew stood as much as face him.
“Over the years I would ask about you,” Wendy Sekulich instructed him. “I always thought you had a good heart.”
Sekulich, Gallagher’s aunt, stated she was additionally Whitehead’s trainer by way of grades 9 to 12 and had felt like throwing up when she heard of his involvement.
“I believed in him; he was a good kid. How his life turned around I don’t know. Did he have a rough life? Yes, he did, but so did a lot of other people. It’s what we choose to do with it.”
Whitehead apologized to the household, however the Gallaghers stated they don’t know if they’ll settle for it but.
“I don’t know yet,” Brian stated. “But that is all there is.”
He stated that he did imagine Whitehead was attempting to make an try at listening to the household.
“I taught my students for years, saying sorry and being sorry are two different things,” Sekulich added.
Whitehead is the third to be sentenced in reference to Gallagher’s case. The fates of the six remaining accused are nonetheless earlier than the courts.
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