In Calgary courts: Jurors make quick work in finding city man guilty of brutal rape of Calgary senior in her assisted living residence
Noteworthy legal cases in Calgary and area from Feb. 3-7, 2025

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It took jurors about an hour Friday to convict city man Duran Ross Buffalo in the brutal rape of an elderly woman in her northwest Calgary apartment.
The 12-member Calgary Court of King’s Bench jury heard final submissions from Crown prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz and legal instructions from Justice Michele Hollins before retiring to deliberate the case around 3:30 p.m.
About an hour later court staff was notified jurors had reached a verdict.
While the jury heard from both the Crown and the judge on Friday they didn’t hear a peep from the self-represented Buffalo, who remained mute throughout proceedings.
During his week-long trial Buffalo sat silently in the prisoner’s box, occasionally appearing to be speaking to himself, as Dalidowicz called evidence about the brutal attack on the woman, who died a year ago without seeing her assailant brought justice.
The verdicts of guilty on charges of aggravated sexual assault and breaking into the victim’s apartment to commit that crime was met by a wide grin from the victim’s daughter.
“Just so relieved, so relieved for mom,” she said, shortly after court adjourned.
But the daughter, who can’t be named to protect her mother’s identity, said it may have been a blessing of sorts she didn’t live long enough to see Buffalo brought to justice.
“It would have been very hard for her to live through it over again.”
Buffalo showed no apparent reaction as the jury foreperson read their decision in court.
Before they reached their verdicts, Dalidowicz had argued the evidence in the case was compelling and backed both the victim’s 911 call the evening of the Jan. 1, 2021, assault and a later police statement.
The victim was raped in her own bed after Buffalo gained entry into the secure 31st Street N.W. building and then her suite.
“The corroboration of (her) statements is strong,” the prosecutor said, pointing to DNA evidence which put Buffalo at the scene of the crime.
“The puzzle pieces, when fully assembled at the end of the day, show you a picture of no one else but Mr. Buffalo entering her residence and sexually assaulting her, endangering her life in doing so,” he said.
Throughout the trial Buffalo, 40, sat in the prisoner’s box, often with his head down, his hands clasped behind his neck.
Before she began giving jurors instructions on the law, Hollins gave Buffalo one last chance to argue his case.
“Mr. Buffalo, as I have explained to you beforehand on a couple of occasions, this is your opportunity to address the jury if you wish. Do you have anything to say to the jury?” Hollins asked, before a long period of silence in the courtroom.
“It’s been in excess of one minute so I’ll take that from you Mr. Buffalo that you do not wish to address the jury,” Hollins said in finally breaking the silence.
During her charge to jurors the Court of King’s Bench judge reiterated earlier comments she made that they should not let Buffalo’s behaviour during his trial influence their decision.
“It is not your role to determine if Mr. Buffalo is fit to stand trial,” she said, noting psychiatric assessments had earlier deemed he understood the legal process.
Dalidowicz indicated he will seeking a dangerous offender designation for Buffalo which could see him locked up indefinitely.
The case returns to court on April 11.
Single gunshot wound to the back of the head killed Calgary teen Jal Acor Jal, court told

Calgary teen Jal Acor Jal was slain by a single bullet to the back of the head, a forensic pathologist testified Friday.
Dr. Lucy Bradley conducted an autopsy on Jal on April 1, 2022, the day after he was shot in a grassy area near Crowchild Trail and Stoney Trail N.W.
Bradley told Crown prosecutor Todd Buziak she first examined the clothing the 16-year-old was wearing when his body was brought to the office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
She said she found frayed area on the back of the hood of the sweatshirt the deceased was wearing.
Under the hood she found some black material wrapped around his head which she determined was a T-shirt pulled up over his face.
“You can see how this T-shirt has been fixed around his head, kind of tied like a balaclava,” Bradley said.
There was also a “frayed defect” on the black cloth, she said.
“All of these frayed defects kind of line up.”
The doctor told Justice Paul Jeffrey she had to shave away some of Jal’s black hair before finding a “small round defect on the back of the head, slightly to the left side and that is a gunshot entrance wound.”
Bradely said no bullet was found as it exited the front of the deceased’s skull.
“Within the right eyebrow there is a torn defect, a laceration and that is the exit wound.”
After removing the top of Jal’s skull and his brain Bradley was able to use a probe to show the trajectory of the bullet.
“Where that probe is is where (the bullet) tore through the brain,” she said.
It entered the upper left neck and went through “the skull bone at the back of the neck … and entered the right orbit, the right eye,” Bradley said.
An 18-year-old Calgarian is charged with second-degree murder in connection with Jal’s March 31, 2022, death.
Because he was a minor he can’t be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
Defence lawyer Andrea Urquhart has elected to have her client tried by a Court of King’s Bench judge sitting without a jury.
Court earlier heard a search of the accused’s northwest Calgary home four days after the homicide found the semiautomatic rifle used in Jal’s shooting in the teen’s bedroom.
Urquhart told Jeffrey she will make an application for a directed verdict, arguing there is no evidence which could result in her client being convicted, before she has to determine whether to call evidence.
The case is back in court next Tuesday.
Video of Mountie pelting vehicle which fled checkstop with bullets shown in court

Graphic video of an Alberta Mountie firing shots into a vehicle that fled a checkstop was shown Wednesday in a Calgary courtroom.
Cpl. Reyno La Cock said he chased down the car being driven by Canmore resident Austin Desylva after the suspect fired a bullet into the windshield of his police SUV.
La Cock said he was just starting to end his pursuit of what he believed was a fleeing impaired driver when the incident turned into a potential life-and-death situation.
He told Crown prosecutor Alexandra Russell that when a shot pierced the passenger side of his windshield he feared either his own life, or that of an innocent bystander was in danger.
Desylva’s lawyer, Dale Fedorchuk, wants Justice Keith Yamauchi to rule the officer breached his client’s Charter rights by using excessive force in the arrest, a fact which he will argue should reduce his client’s sentence.

Desylva pleaded guilty Tuesday to four charges, including discharging a firearm with intent to wound, in connection with the Feb. 24, 2023, exchange of gunfire between him and La Cock.
The discharging a firearm offence carries a mandatory minimum five-year sentence.
During his testimony, Russell led La Cock through video footage from his unmarked police vehicle from the location to where he had set up a checkstop that night in Canmore to the cul-de-sac where he eventually cornered the offender.
At one point in the video La Cock turned off his lights and sirens and was ready to let the suspect escape but moments later Desylva fired a shot from a 3D-printed Glock-style handgun at the officer’s SUV.
The officer didn’t notice the flash from Desylva’s driver’s side window and initially thought the noise was his windshield cracking in the cold night.
“At the time I thought, ‘man it’s cold, even my windshield’s breaking,'” he told Russell.
But when La Cock saw the bullet hole in the glass he knew he was dealing with a dangerous individual.
He said the bullet struck about 1.5 metres from where he was seated.
“If it was towards me it would’ve hit me in the face.”

Russell asked La Cock if he could have used other methods to resolve the situation, but he said neither his baton nor Taser would have been useful in the circumstances.
“This guy was shooting to kill me and I was going to use my handgun to stop that threat,” he said.
La Cock said he felt once Desylva was cornered in the cul-de-sac, with a wooded area behind him, it was safe to fire at his car.
But under cross-examination, Fedorchuk noted the first few shots towards his client’s vehicle had a corner home in the line of fire.
The officer’s questioning will continue on Thursday.
Calgary youth committed to stand trial for first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of a city teen

The suspect in the fatal stabbing of Calgary teen Dean Visser was ordered Wednesday to stand charge for first-degree murder in his death.
Youth court Justice Lillian McLellan ordered the accused, who is a youth and can’t be identified, to appear in Calgary Court of King’s Bench on March 28, for the purpose of setting a trial.
The accused, 17, is charged in connection with the killing of Visser, 16, last June 6.
Visser was fatally stabbed in the 1300 block of 41st Street S.E. in the Calgary community of Forest Lawn, over what some unconfirmed reports suggested may have been a dispute over a hoodie.
At the beginning of the preliminary inquiry on Tuesday, defence counsel Rebecca Snukal was granted a publication ban on the evidence called by Crown prosecutors Darren Maloney and Robert Marquette.
The prosecutors called five witnesses over the course of the two-day hearing.
At the conclusion Snukal indicating she was consenting to her client’s committal to stand trial, conceded the Crown had established the low bar that there was some evidence a jury could use to find the accused guilty.
Last August, in setting this week’s preliminary hearing, Snukal’s colleague, Sam Taylor, entered a not guilty plea on the teen’s behalf and elected a trial before a Court of King’s Bench judge sitting without a jury.
Normally juveniles are tried in youth court, but those accused of murder are given the option of having their hearing at that court level, or electing to face trial in Court of King’s Bench, with, or without a jury.
Snukal asked McLellan to order her client to appear via closed-circuit TV from the Edmonton Young Offenders Centre, where he has primarily been housed since his arrest in Visser’s death.
If convicted and sentenced as a youth the maximum punishment he would face would be 10 years, comprised of six in custody and four under community supervision. If the Crown were to successfully seek an adult sentence he would be handed a life term without parole eligibility for 10 years.
Convicted killer hoping to invoke abolished faint-hope clause to seek early freedom

Lawyers met with a Calgary judge Tuesday to discuss the next steps in a process a convicted Calgary killer hopes will lead to her early freedom.
Defence counsel Andrew Wood, along with Crown prosecutors Carla MacPhail and Ramai Alvarez, met via video link with Justice David Labrenz to set dates for materials to be filed in Tosha Hubler’s faint-hope clause application.
Hubler is one of the few people still eligible in Canada to use the legislation which was eliminated by Parliament in 2011.
Only convicted murderers whose crimes were committed before Dec. 2, 2011, are still eligible to make an application, which could lead to a hearing before a jury on whether parole ineligibility will be reduced.
Hubler was sentenced to life in prison without parole for a minimum 25 years in April 2011, in connection with the Jan. 30, 2009, first-degree murder of Calgary senior Rino (Ray) Johnson.
She helped her then-husband, Jason Hubler, lure Johnson, 77, to their Bridgeland home where he was beaten to death for his pickup truck.
Johnson, who bought and sold items at garage sales and flea markets, believed he was going to see some tools Jason Hubler planned to sell.
In court on Tuesday, Wood, whose client did not attend, said he and the prosecutors had just received a parole eligibility report from the Correctional Service of Canada.
Wood told Justice David Labrenz they have also requested a psychological report be completed by April 15, which he expects will be filed with the court by May 15.
All the materials used to prepare the reports will be provided to counsel by Nov. 28, he said.
“Correctional Service is aware of our proposed deadlines,” the lawyer told the Calgary Court of King’s Bench judge.
Once the reports are reviewed a pre-screening hearing will have to be scheduled for Labrenz to determine if Hubler has a chance at convincing a jury to reduce her parole eligibility.
Wood said they’ll be in position to schedule the judicial screening application once they receive all the necessary materials.
While Labrenz said that process could be conducted through written submissions only, Wood said he would prefer to have a hearing in person.
When Parliament abolished the death penalty in the 1970s it introduced legislation requiring offenders convicted of first-degree murder to be sentenced to life without parole for a minimum 25 years, but a section of the law, which became known as the faint-hope clause, allowed killers to ask jurors for a reduction once they’d completed at least 15 years behind bars.
Evidence begins in preliminary inquiry for city teen charged with murder in fatal stabbing

Prosecutors began calling evidence Tuesday to establish grounds to send a Calgary teen to trial on a charge of first-degree murder.
At the request of defence counsel Rebecca Snukal, youth court Justice Lillian McLellan ordered a publication ban on the testimony being called by Crown prosecutors Darren Maloney and Robert Marquette.
The prosecutors expect to call five witnesses over the court of the scheduled two-day hearing in Calgary Court of Justice.
Snukal’s client, who can’t be named under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is charged with first-degree murder in the fatal stabbing of city teen Dean Visser.
Visser, 16, was stabbed around 7 p.m. last June 6, in the 1300 block of 41st Street S.E., in the Calgary community of Forest Lawn, in which some unconfirmed reports say may have been during a dispute over a hoodie.
When Snukal’s colleague, Sam Taylor, scheduled the preliminary inquiry last August, Maloney told court he didn’t anticipate the defence would oppose committal to stand trial, which requires there be some evidence for which a jury could make a finding of guilt.
“The preliminary won’t be contested, they just want to hear from a number of witnesses,” Maloney said at the time.
At that same court appearance, Taylor entered a not guilty plea and asked that the accused’s trial be held before a Calgary Court of King’s Bench judge sitting alone.
Since the accused is a minor he had the option of electing to be tried by a youth court judge sitting alone, or by a King’s Bench jury or justice sitting without a jury.
Snukal’s client, 17, has been in juvenile custody since his arrest.
If convicted and sentenced as a youth the maximum sentence he would face would be 10 years comprised of six in custody and four under supervision. If the Crown were to successfully seek an adult sentence he would be handed a life term without parole eligibility for 10 years.
Shootout with Mounties left Canmore man with shattered jaw, other wounds, court told

Canmore resident Austin Desylva spent 15 days in intensive care in a Calgary hospital after an ill-fated shootout with an RCMP officer left him badly wounded, court heard Tuesday.
Desylva, 28, pleaded guilty on Calgary Court of King’s Bench to four charges, including discharging a firearm with intent to wound, in connection with a Feb. 24, 2023, incident in the mountain town.
Other charges, including the attempted murder of Const. Reyno La Cock, were withdrawn by Crown prosecutor Aaron Rankin once Justice Keith Yamauchi accepted Desylva’s guilty pleas.
Reading from a statement of agreed facts signed by Rankin, co-prosecutor Alexandra Russell, defence counsel Dale Fedorchuk and Desylva, Rankin told Yamauchi that La Cock was running a checkstop in Canmore that evening when he spotted Desylva’s Buick Verano approaching before doing an abrupt U-turn.
“As soon as this happened, La Cock got back in his vehicle and turned on its police lights and siren to pursue the Buick,” Rankin said.
“Not long into Const. La Cock’s pursuit, Desylva made a sharp left turn and discharged a firearm out of the driver’s window. The bullet Desylva fired struck Const. La Cock’s windshield.”
The officer continued to chase the offender and a few minutes later Desylva fired a second shot, which missed the police vehicle and struck a nearby residence, which was occupied by four people. That projectile ended up lodged in an interior wall of the home, Rankin said.
The flight was captured on the officer’s dash camera, court was told.
That footage captured “Desylva driving through intersections controlled by stop signs without stopping and driving at unsafe speeds for conditions on downtown and residential streets.”
Desylva ultimately pulled into a cul-de-sac, the prosecutor said.
“After Const. La Cock had drawn his police-issued sidearm and fired a total of 25 times, Mr. Desylva fled the Buick west toward the Bow River,” Rankin said.
“The firearm that Desylva used to fire two shots was a 3D-printed Glock-style handgun.”
Desylva’s weapon was found next to his abandoned vehicle next to a blood droplet trail leading away from the Buick.
Nearly two hours later he was arrested not far from his car “seriously injured” from bullet wounds and suffering frostbite from exposure to the elements.
“Desylva had been struck by bullets to the head and neck area,” Rankin said.
He suffered a shattered jaw, a fracture to the top plate of his mouth and a bullet was lodged in his esophagus.
He was ultimately transported to Foothills Medical Centre in Calgary by helicopter where he underwent surgery and spent 15 days in intensive care.
Fedorchuk will argue Desylva’s Charter rights were violated by La Cock using excessive force in the arrest, something which would mitigate an appropriate sentence.
An evidentiary hearing will be conducted on that issue before sentencing submissions at a later date.
Strange behaviour by rape suspect should not impact deliberations, judge tells jury

Jurors in the trial of a Calgary man accused of raping a 90-year-old woman were told Tuesday to ignore the strange behaviour he has demonstrated in court.
Justice Michele Hollins told a 14-member Calgary Court of King’s Bench jury that the conduct of Duran Ross Buffalo, who has refused to engage in the legal proceedings, should not impact their deliberations.
“Please do not be distracted, nor allow this information or Mr. Buffalo’s behaviour in the courtroom to affect your assessment of the evidence,” Hollins said, after telling the jurors the accused has been found fit to stand trial.
“I want to address you concerning Mr. Buffalo’s behaviour in the courtroom. While it’s not unheard of for accused persons to be disengaged from their trial, Mr. Buffalo’s behaviour has not been typical,” Hollins said.
“In the event you have questions or concerns about this, I’m going to give you some information about a person’s fitness to stand trial. The Criminal Code presumes that a person is fit to stand trial unless the court is satisfied on a balance of probabilities that he is not fit.
“Where there is a concern that a person is not fit, namely unable to participate in their own defence, they may be assessed by a psychiatrist at the Forensic Psychiatry Centre. That happened here and in fact, Mr. Buffalo has been found fit to stand trial on repeated assessments. I have accepted that assessment.”
Hollins went on to indicate Buffalo has the right to hear the case against him and to defend himself “even if he chooses not to.”
Over the course of Buffalo’s trial, which began Monday, he has refused to respond to any questions asked of him by Hollins and did not enter a plea when he was arraigned, causing the judge to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.
Buffalo, 40, has mostly sat in the prisoner’s box with his head bowed looking at the floor, although at one point Monday he got out of his seat and laid on the floor, leading to a sheriff indicating he may have dozed off.
He faces charges of aggravated sexual assault and break and enter in connection with a Jan. 1, 2021, incident in which a 90-year-old woman (who has since died) was attacked in the bedroom of her assisted living apartment.
Meanwhile in evidence, a doctor with the Calgary Sexual Assault Response Team who examined the complainant the following day, said she found multiple bruises and abrasions on the woman.
Dr. Mahjabdeen Hussain also told Crown prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz she found evidence consistent with the woman having recently been involved in sexual intercourse.
Skateboarder struck and killed by speeding motorist would have been hard to see, court told

The Calgary woman struck and killed by a speeding motorist as she rode her skateboard in the middle of a street would have been difficult to see, a court heard Monday.
And according to a statement of agreed facts filed by Crown prosecutor Adam Drew, Alyssa Richards may have been wearing earbuds when she was hit by driver Austin James O’Bray.
O’Bray, who had faced a criminal charge of impaired driving causing death, pleaded guilty to an offence of careless driving under Alberta’s Traffic Safety Act in connection with the July 28, 2022, collision that killed Richards.
Justice Nancy Dilts accepted a joint submission by Drew and defence counsel James Wyman for the maximum fine of $2,000 under the act and a three-month driving suspension.
Drew told the Court of King’s Bench judge that O’Bray, 25, was driving his Infiniti M35X southbound at up to double the posted speed limit on 4th Street N.E. when he collided with Richards, who was skateboarding in the same direction, around 2 a.m.
Drew said the speed limit on the roadway, near the intersection of Hunstrom Drive N.E., was 50 km/h.
“The vehicle was travelling at a high rate of speed, 80-100 km/h,” the prosecutor said.
Drew said while the road appeared well-lit, “Richards’ clothing made her difficult to see against the dark background of the grass median and trees.”
“Richards was dressed in dark clothing, was wearing no safety equipment, may have been wearing earbuds, and was facing away from the approaching vehicle,” he said.
“Prior to the collision, O’Bray made a late attempt to steer to the left, but was unable to avoid striking the pedestrian, and hit her with the front passenger corner of the car, as the vehicle was steering away from Richards.
“Travelling at such a high rate of speed and initiating a sharp steering input caused the subsequent loss of control, which resulted in the vehicle going off-road, onto the grassy westside median.”
Drew said Richards’ dark clothing would have made her “inconspicuous and was a factor in the collision,” as was the fact she was skateboarding in a roadway at that time of night.
While his car came to a stop off the roadway, O’Bray drove it back onto the street and parked on Hunstrom Drive before he and his passenger ran back to the scene, where they remained.
Wyman told Dilts that O’Bray had a promising hockey career in the junior ranks up until that time and had opportunities to play in the U.S., but put his life and career on hold following the crash.
Calgary jury hears 911 call made by city nonagenarian after she was brutally raped in her assisted care residence

She has since died, but jurors on Monday were able to hear the words of an elderly Calgary senior who through tears told a 911 operator how she was sexually attacked in her own bed.
“Somebody just broke . . . in my bedroom and had sex with me. I don’t know what to do,” the 90-year-old said on the recorded call, made the night of Jan. 1, 2021.
“I was asleep and this guy broke in,” she said.
“I can’t stop crying.”
Calgarian Duran Ross Buffalo, 40, faces charges of aggravated sexual assault and break and enter to commit an aggravated sexual assault in connection with the attack at an assisted living facility in the northwest community of Brentwood.
Throughout the evidence Buffalo showed little interest in the proceedings, bowing his head down and staring at the floor. When the charges were read to him he did not enter a plea, forcing Justice Michele Hollins to invoke a section of the Criminal Code allowing her to enter not guilty pleas on his behalf.
At one point court proceedings had to be interrupted when a sheriff indicated Buffalo, who got on the floor in the prisoner’s box, may have fallen asleep.
Court also heard from the woman’s daughter, who received a call from her mother after the incident occurred.
The daughter told Crown prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz, her mom had begun to develop dementia and she wasn’t certain the victim was relating actual events.
“She was frantic. I’ve never heard my mom speak like that before,” she testified.
“She was crying, she was so upset . . . It was horrible to listen to. She was obviously frightened.”
The daughter immediately came down from Edmonton, seeing her mother the following morning after she’d been discharged from the hospital.
She said her mother was still adamant she’d been sexually assaulted.
“She said, ‘I know that I was sexually assaulted last night. I know it. The guy’s shirt is still in my bedroom.'”
At that point the woman discovered two articles of clothing, a T-shirt and sweatshirt, that did not belong to her mom, items Dalidowicz said will be crucial for jurors to decide the case.
“Mom had found it (the T-shirt) on her bed and kind of threw it off and left it (on the floor),” she said.
The daughter found a light-coloured sweatshirt in her mom’s storage room and told her she needed to call the police to return.
At that time an officer suggested she should return to the hospital and undergo a rape kit test, which she did.
The woman said her mother died a little over a year ago.
Before evidence began, Hollins told jurors that Buffalo has chosen to represent himself, but the judge has appointed an amicus curiae, defence lawyer Bev Broadhurst, to represent the interests of the court.
The trial is set for four weeks.
Days after Calgary teen fatally shot police seized semiautomatic rifle and cache of 9mm cartridges, youth murder trial hears

Police discovered a single, spent 9mm cartridge by the body of slain Calgary teen Jal Acor Jal, court heard Monday.
And Crown prosecutor Todd Buziak, in a brief opening detailing his case, said the cartridge matched a firearm found in the bedroom of a Calgary youth charged with Jal’s murder.
According to a statement of agreed facts read in by Buziak and signed by defence counsel Andrea Urquhart and her client, who can’t be named, police executed a search warrant at a northwest Calgary home five days after Jal was fatally shot.
There they seized a semiautomatic rifle, two cartridge magazines and 33 live 9mm cartridges, Buziak told Calgary Court of King’s Justice Paul Jeffrey.
“The young person did not have a licence to possess any firearms, ammunition, prohibited devices or ballistic body armour,” Buziak said.
Urquhart’s client, now 18, faces a charge of second-degree murder in the March 31, 2022, shooting death of Jal, 16.
CCTV footage from two northwest Calgary LRT stations as well as from two transit buses and a business near the Crowfoot CTrain station allowed police to track the last hour or so of Jal’s life, court was told.
Jal, who was 6 ft. 3 in. and weighed 146 pounds, a full seven inches taller and 14 pounds heavier than his alleged murderer, was first captured on video at the Dalhousie station at 6:30 p.m., the prosecutor said.
Video showed Jal pacing about the station for 52 minutes, occasionally seen carrying and manipulating his cellphone, before leaving and boarding a bus at 7:22 p.m.
He was dropped off at the Crowfoot station around 7:38 p.m. and walked around for about seven minutes before heading to a nearby bus loop.
Video from a bus and nearby video captured the deceased walking with a person police deemed a person of interest in the direction of Stoney Trail N.W.
Jal’s body was found nearby, Buziak said.
“Police found the deceased’s body … and located a spent 9mm cartridge casing,” the prosecutor said.
The accused’s trial is scheduled to last three weeks, but may conclude sooner.
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