Man accused in fatal Edmonton shooting completed accessory to murder sentence weeks earlier

WARNING: This story contains descriptions of violence.

A man charged in a fatal Edmonton shooting had finished serving time behind bars for accessory to murder just a few weeks before being accused in a murder case.

Jerad Wuttunee, 36, was charged earlier this month in the shooting death of 52-year-old Darrell Demchuk. Court records show Wuttunee was among a group of four adults previously charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of two people in January 2021.

The four accused each pleaded guilty to lesser accessory charges, including Wuttunee, admitting only to assisting with the attempted clean-up of the crime scene to remove evidence. The murder charges were stayed.

When Wuttunee was sentenced on Dec. 19, with credit for nearly two years he'd already spent in jail, he was left with 64 days in his sentence, according to court information.

Demchuk was shot and killed on the night of April 6.

The Edmonton Police Service also charged 45-year-old Brandon Herry with first-degree murder in the case. When they announced the arrests on April 15, EPS said the two accused and Demchuk don't appear to have known each other. 

Court records show Herry and Wuttunee have additionally been charged with arson for allegedly damaging a vehicle on the same day as the homicide.

According to EPS, the shooting happened around 10 p.m. in the area of 66th Street and 38th Avenue — a major intersection in southeast Edmonton that also includes the Valley Line's Millbourne/Woodvale station.

Despite life-saving measures, police said, paramedics declared Demchuk dead at the scene.

Before the arrests, EPS appealed for tips and video footage, with Staff Sgt. Colin Leathem saying in a statement that "there were a significant number of pedestrians and vehicular traffic in the area at the time of the shooting."

Court record details 2021 case

Wuttunee was previously arrested in Vancouver on Jan. 31, 2023 — more than two years after police began investigating a pair of homicides on Edmonton's south side.

In that case, 29-year-old Deidre Aldridge and 30-year-old Daniel Grandbois were found dead at a home in the McKernan neighbourhood.

An agreed statement of facts in the court record says a woman who lived in the home's basement suite reported to police on Jan. 6, 2021, that she'd seen people she didn't know bring a "badly beaten and bloodied" woman downstairs, and on the main floor, she saw a man who was beaten and tied up in a bedroom.

One of the people accused in the case rented the main floor suite of the house, and her son and partner who lived there with her were also charged. Any link Wuttunee may have had to the home wasn't explained in the agreed facts.

Police arrived at the house to find the back door open, and the bodies of Aldridge and Grandbois inside.

It appeared that they were "being prepared to be removed from the residence," the agreed facts say. Aldridge was hog-tied with an electrical cord and wrapped in a carpet secured with tape, while Grandbois was also wrapped in a carpet with his hands tied behind his back.

Both victims had numerous injuries, with the cause of death ruled as multiple stab wounds to the head and neck. An autopsy found Aldridge also had blunt force injuries, fractured bones and evidence of neck compression. She'd been stabbed more than 20 times.

According to the agreed facts, various pieces of evidence from the scene linked DNA from some of the accused to the victims, as well as different portions of the house.

The case concluded without anyone being found criminally responsible for killing Aldrige or Grandbois.