In a Calgary courthouse Friday, Justice George Gaschler sentenced Wiley Provost to four and a half years in prison for killing his friend, Colton Crowshoe, in 2014.

He will serve two years of probation following his release.

Provost, 30, was charged with second-degree murder on July 7, 2022, nearly eight years to the day after Crowshoe, 18, was killed. Provost strangled Crowshoe near a home where they had been partying. The two were considered close friends at the time of Crowshoe’s death.

In September 2023, Provost pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter. Manslaughter has no minimum sentence; the maximum sentence is life imprisonment.

Crowshoe’s death was a mystery for eight years until Provost’s step-mother confessed to police in April 2022 that her step-son had killed Crowshoe, according to an agreed statement of facts.

Crowshoe’s family was sitting at a crescent-shaped table, across from Provost, inside the Calgary Indigenous courtroom for the sentencing.

“This is the big thing we have to deal with every day, and it hurts,” Jimmy Crowshoe said of his son’s death.

In his decision, Justice Gaschler said members of the Crowshoe family will be notified of the date of all probation reviews and will have a chance to speak with Provost.

Jimmy Crowshoe is unsure if he will take advantage of that opportunity.

“He hurt me,” he said.

Jimmy Crowshoe says he sometimes delivers food to his son’s room, even after his death, because he is still with him in spirit. (Dayne Patterson/CBC)

How it happened

More than 10 years ago, Provost dumped his friend’s body in a storm pond. Provost was 19 years old at the time.

Court documents say that Provost and Crowshoe had been dancing and drinking heavily together at a house party in the northeast Calgary neighbourhood of Abbeydale on July 4, 2014.

When police arrived at the home, for a separate domestic violence call, the two fled together. It was the last time anyone, except for Provost, saw Crowshoe alive.

Documents say that after running from the house party, the two sat down at a storm pond not far from the house. They took off their shirts and used them as seats on the wet grass.

The two got into an argument and it escalated. By its end, Provost had strangled Crowshoe with Crowshoe’s own shirt until he fell limp.

After fleeing the scene, and later returning, Provost dumped the body into the pond, waited for it to sink below the surface, and then ran.

An autopsy would later find Crowshoe’s death was a result of compression to his neck — including fractured bones and fractured cartilage — and that there was no evidence of drowning.

About three hours after the two left the party, Provost arrived home. He told his mother, and later told police during an interview, that he and Crowshoe had separated as they fled the house party. He told police he had “blacked out” and woke up in a field east of Stoney Trail.

About three weeks later, a passerby found Crowshoe’s body in the storm pond.

A decade-long journey

During witness impact statements read during a previous court hearing, and repeated by Gaschler during his sentencing, Jimmy Crowshoe recalled being at the storm pond the day they found his son.

“The guy who killed my son was standing right there beside me,” Jimmy had said.

“The person who was close to our family took the life of my son. He came to events we held for Colton — candlelight vigils, marches, walks. He searched with us.”

Justice Gaschler said he took Provost’s choice not to come forward as an aggravating factor in his sentencing decision.

Provost also spoke at a previous court hearing. His statement was read by Gaschler on Friday.

“I know there are no excuses. I was afraid,” he quoted Provost.

In the three weeks Colton Crowshoe was missing, his family begged police to treat his disappearance as a missing persons case. It wasn’t considered a missing persons case until two days before he was found in the pond.

The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team (ASIRT) investigated allegations of racism and profiling made by Crowshoe’s family against the police.

Its 32-month investigation found there were several problems with the investigation and many mistakes were made, but Calgary police officers did not face any charges.

“The investigation was not done properly, but it wasn’t down to racism,” ASIRT’s then executive director Susan Hughson said in 2017.

Wiley Provost’s sentence was read as members of the victim’s family sat across a crescent-shaped table from the accused in Calgary Indigenous Court. (Dayne Patterson/CBC)

Now, at the case’s end, Crowshoe’s family members are disappointed with the outcome.

Colton’s aunt, Danielle Crowshoe, was critical of the Gladue report factors, which are meant to help judges take Indigenous experiences into account during sentencing.

The Gladue report prepared for Provost outlined alcohol abuse and domestic violence in his parents’ lives, as well as living on his own in his mid-teens as factors to consider.

Danielle Crowshoe said the report painted Provost as a victim, when it was their relative who was killed.

“He should have gotten more time,” she said.

“Our family has been in this for 10 years now … and it’s made a lot of us sick.”

Despite the judge’s belief that Provost was remorseful, Danielle Crowshoe insisted he is only sorry that he was caught.