The Yukon Territorial Court handed down a two-year sentence with additional probation for the first man to be charged with manslaughter after selling drugs that led to a fatal overdose in the Yukon.The jail sentence is all accounted for by time served as the matter was before the courts.
Earlier this year, 34-year-old Jared Skookum plead guilty to the manslaughter charge following the death of Stephanie Pye, who he sold opioids to in April 2022. The court ruled on his sentencing Aug. 26.
An agreed statement of facts filed along with Skookum’s June guilty plea describes two transactions for drugs between him and Pye on April 5 and in the early hours of April 6 2022. After the first transaction Skookum texted Pye again asking whether she was alive. She reported that the first batch of drugs hadn’t done anything for her. Skookum replied that he had a different batch called “purple man eater” but that he had initially sold her a weaker batch as the two of them had overdosed at the same location less than a month before which led to a brief hospitalization for Pye. The statement of facts confirms that the second transaction took place around 3:45 a.m. on April 6 outside a downtown Whitehorse hotel.
Early that afternoon Pye was found dead in a room at the hotel. She was 36 years old and a member of the Liard First Nation.
According to the statement of facts, police went on to locate “small quantities of substance that tested as fentanyl or a combination of fentanyl, etizolam and caffeine,” in the hotel room. A forensic pathologist found Pye’s death was caused by an overdose of fentanyl and etizolam, which is a thienodiazepine, a similar class of chemical to benzodiazepines. Both act as central nervous system depressants according to information circulated by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency.
Skookum was soon arrested for trafficking the drugs to Pye. The statement of facts noted that when interviewed by police he admitted to selling the drugs and expressed remorse. He also told police that he sold drugs to fund his own use of them.
In sentencing, Judge Michael Cozens considered a Victim Impact Statement from Pye’s mother explaining the great impact her daughter’s death had on the family including Pye’s children. In his decision on sentencing Cozens notes that some parts of the victim impact statement were inadmissible so he read it into the record himself with edits made. A Community Impact Statement from the Liard First Nation was also read into the record and considered by Cozens.
Cozens’ decision on sentencing also considered Skookum’s criminal record, the role that drugs and alcohol have played in his offenses and his circumstances in childhood including those considered as Gladue factors tied to the intergenerational trauma caused by the residential school system. Skookum is a Little Salmon Carmacks First Nation citizen.
In addition to the two-year sentence Skookum will be subject to three years of probation when he is released with terms including reporting to probation officer, remaining in the Yukon unless leaving for approved treatment and staying away from bars, liquor stores and other establishments that primarily sell alcohol. He is also bound by a no contact order for individuals including members of Pye’s family and is prohibited from owning firearms for ten years with a lifetime ban on restricted firearms.
In his decision, Cozens notes that he wouldn’t be able to impose the three years of probation if he sentenced Skookum to more than two years of jail time. The judge found that the longer probation would improve Skookum’s chance for successful rehabilitation.
Contact Jim Elliot at jim.elliot@yukon-news.com
Editor's note: An earlier version of this article referred to etizolam as a benzodiazepine. In fact, it is a thienodiazepine, a similar but not identical class of chemical.
