The widow of a La Ronge restaurateur, murdered in 2017 said she is fearful for her family upon learning that one of the convicted individuals will soon be released.
Simon Grant died after being brutally beaten with a baseball bat in his Louisiana-Bar-B-Que restaurant during a botched robbery attempt in April 2017.
A 17-year-old boy at the time of the homicide could be released from prison in December. The Appeals Court said he was central to the plan of the attack and robbery, as he was known to Grant, who helped the troubled teen by taking him in.
“We have a lot of fear, anxiety, just shock, a lot of shock at this point,” said Cora Laich. “He may want to communicate with us or or whatever it may be that we just want that distance from him and we don’t want to live in fear.”
Laich has a daughter and cares for a cognitively disabled man. She said early release as stirred emotions in the family.
The Sask. Court of Appeals reduced the adult sentence of nine-years for manslaughter to seven-years. The unidentified individual will be released on statutory parole after serving approximately four and a half years in custody.
Laich moved from La Ronge to Eatonia, but still has family and friend connects to northern Saskatchewan, as her daughter considers La Ronge home and visits that community.
She explained she will be offering recommendations for the offenders community sentence such as; no contact with the family, being prohibited from drugs, alcohol and weapons, satellite or electronic monitoring and that if the offender and her family are in La Ronge at the same time, they are notified of his presence.
“We are in the process of just putting in surveillance and an alarm system and as well just making the local authorities aware of what’s going to be happening and just so the community as well that we live in are aware and looking out for us because I think that’s really really important,” Laich said
(Photo: Cora Laich and Simon Grant)