Notorious gang members charged in prison killing

Six men, including several who are serving lengthy prison sentences for high-profile crimes including murder, have been charged in connection with a stabbing death in the Prince Albert penitentiary on Jan. 4, RCMP announced Tuesday.

The news release omitted the name of the victim, only referring to a "stabbing complaint" at the prison. A spokeswoman for the RCMP told CBC News that the victim's mother declined to authorize his name being made public.

However, government sources have told media outlets, including CBC News, that the man who was killed was Daniel Richard Wolfe, also a high-profile member of a street gang.

Wolfe, 33, died in what authorities described as a prison fight.

Two men have been charged with second-degree murder in Wolfe's death:

• Tristan Raphael, 27.
• Jacob Worm, 26.

Four others have been charged with manslaughter:

• Ryan Agecoutay, 27.
• Michael Slippery, 23.
• Nolan Turcotte, 19.
• Francis Yukon, 34.

All six have also been charged with two counts of attempted murder.

Sgt. Carole Raymond, the RCMP media relations officer, told CBC News the attempted-murder charges involve two other men who were wounded in the same incident, but Raymond would not identify them.

Wolfe had been sentenced to life in prison for shooting two men to death in a gang-related, violent home invasion, according to testimony heard during his trial. Some of the men charged in his death also have deep gang connections, some with rival gangs, some with links to Wolfe's group.

Notorious cases

One of the accused, Nolan Royce Turcotte, is serving time for second-degree murder for killing a Good Samaritan on Boxing Day, 2006, outside of a Regina convenience store.

Turcotte, who was 16 at the time, was sentenced as an adult. 

He stabbed Larry Moser, 28, who was trying to help a store clerk deal with a group of teens who were suspected of shoplifting. When Moser confronted the youths, he was stabbed three times in the back. When Turcotte was sentenced, the court ordered that a publication ban protecting his identity be lifted.

Several of the accused have a history of violence.

Parole documents say Agecoutay was the leader of a violent and destructive prison riot several years ago. He is also described as a gang member, although his affiliation has not been disclosed.

In August 2008, he was one of six men who broke out of the Regina jail and spent some time on the lam until they were recaptured. Coincidentally, Wolfe was involved in that incident.

After bursting through a crumbling brick wall which the inmates had been chipping away at in secret, the six split up. Agecoutay was the last of the group to be recaptured. His criminal record includes a conviction for a violent home invasion where a family was threatened.

When Agecoutay and the others broke out of jail, Wolfe said he just went along because the opportunity arose. He made his way to Winnipeg, familiar ground to him in the past. Police in that city arrested him and returned him to Saskatchewan.

According to several sources, Wolfe had strong ties to the criminal gang known as Indian Posse. Some of the men accused of killing him, including Michael Slippery, have also been described in various reports as members of Indian Posse.

Violence behind bars

Yukon is serving time for manslaughter for killing a man over a drug debt in the North. While in prison, Yukon was convicted of second-degree murder for stabbing another inmate to death during a basketball game.

Jacob Worm was in prison serving time for second-degree murder in relation to the death of Douglas Anderson in Regina in 2006. Anderson was shot in in the stomach during a home invasion in which Worm and two accomplices mistakenly thought they were going into a home known to have drugs.

Worm also has gang connections, as does Tristan Raphael who is described in court records as a member of Indian Posse. Raphael has been accused of attacking fellow inmates in gang- related disputes.