Ashtin Ritzand and Colton Lischka were convicted of manslaughter and aggravated assault for the stabbing death of James Swift and the injury of Virginia Belhumeur, despite neither being proven to hold the knife during the incident on August 29, 2022, near Saskatoon. Following a chaotic night involving a car dispute, Swift was stabbed twice and Belhumeur four times, with the attackers leaving them in a ditch. The judge treated each as if the other was the stabber, leading to sentencing arguments where the Crown sought a 10-12 year sentence. Ritzand’s lawyer proposed a seven-year sentence reflecting time served, while Lischka’s lawyer advocated for four years, emphasizing their lack of intent to kill.
