The medical examiner who conducted Keesha Bitternose’s autopsy says there were so many injuries on 29-year-old mother Regina’s body that it was very difficult to determine the exact cause of her death. Dr. Andreea Nistor was called by Crown prosecutors to be an expert witness on Tuesday – the second day of Dillon Whitehawk’s first-degree murder trial. The 28-year-old man is the third and final person to stand trial in connection with the Bitternose murder on January 5, 2020. Last November, Kurt Thomas pleaded guilty to manslaughter in her death. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison with credit for time served. Earlier this month, Kelly Stonechild was sentenced to seven years in prison after also pleading guilty to manslaughter in Bitternose’s death. In the Court of King’s Bench in Regina on Tuesday, Nistor testified that she easily found 100 or more wounds on Bitternose’s body during the Jan. 7, 2020, autopsy. The woman had a collapsed lung and severe blood loss after a combination of blunt force trauma to her head and multiple stab wounds to her neck and abdomen, Nistor testified. Bitternose could also have been shot, but so many injuries overlapped it was too hard to say for sure, he told the court. Whitehawk’s defense attorney played down that uncertainty during Tuesday’s cross-examination. Dillon Whitehawk is on trial for first-degree murder in Bitternose’s death. (Declared name/Facebook) Thomas Hynes argued that the doctor believed Bitternose had been shot once she was asked to review her findings by police and Crown prosecutors. Nistor said a CT scan found small metal fragments in the woman’s abdomen, but they were not found or examined during the autopsy. Hines also questioned whether the bruises around Bitternose’s neck were consistent with strangulation. Nistor said there was no indication of that, but she couldn’t rule it out. Crown prosecutors told Judge Janet McMurtry at the judge-alone trial Tuesday that they are advancing a “three-pronged theory” as to why they believe Whitehawk should be convicted of first-degree murder. Associate Crown prosecutor David Belanger argued that Bitternose was unlawfully confined at the time of her killing and that it was planned, deliberate and gang-related. After an earlier trial, Whitehawk was sentenced in June to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 25 years for two separate shooting deaths in late 2019. At the time, Crown attorneys claimed the killings were motivated by his desire to rise through the ranks of the Indian Mafia. Prosecutors are calling a gang expert to the stand when Whitehawk’s current trial resumes Wednesday morning.
Family seeking justice
Some of Bitternose’s loved ones were forced to leave the courtroom while the coroner testified about her graphic injuries. Outside the courthouse later, Louise Bitternose, the woman’s mother, broke down in tears as she spoke about her daughter. “She was trying to get out of this gang and go back to school to finish her master’s [degree in social work],” he said. “She was always bubbly, happy … and she was always very smart.” Jeannette Anderson — Bitternose’s kokum, or grandmother, with whom she lived on George Gordon First Nation before moving to Regina to pursue post-secondary education — agreed. “She was the oldest of my grandchildren and she was the role model,” Anderson said. The grandmother said if it wasn’t for the rest of her family, she wouldn’t be in court for the next two weeks. But as the matriarch, she knows it’s her role to keep everyone strong in the midst of adversity. “My family is hurting,” he said. “But I told them when it first happened that we were all going to be in this together — and I meant it.” Louise Bitternose said that with the trial over, her family is looking to begin the healing process. But for now, their sights are set on justice. “I hope he gets what he deserves,” she said.
