Man pleads guilty to murder in 2021 shootings in Faro, Yukon

A Yukon man has pleaded guilty to murder for killing two people in Faro, Yukon, during a shooting rampage three years ago.

Ralph Bernard Shaw, 64, entered guilty pleas in a Whitehorse courtroom Monday to first-degree murder in the death of his estranged wife, 42-year-old Saengduean Honchaiyaphum, and second-degree murder in the death of Patrick McCracken, 73.

He also pleaded guilty to aggravated assault for shooting another man — Honchaiyaphum's new partner — that same day.

Standing between his lawyers and dressed in a blue jail-issued t-shirt and pants, Shaw, who appeared frail as he entered the courtroom, showed little emotion as he confirmed that he understood the charges against him and the consequences of entering guilty pleas. 

Around 20 people sat in the courtroom gallery to watch the proceedings, with several more listening via a phone conference call and others watching from the Faro community hall via video link. 

Shaw also faces four counts of attempted murder and three counts of discharging a firearm with intent to wound in relation to his Oct. 26, 2021, shooting rampage. He pleaded not guilty to those charges.

While Shaw admitted to the shootings last week, Crown attorneys Tom Lemon and Kathryn Laurie read three new admissions-of-fact documents to the court following his pleas that shed more light on what happened during, and what led up to, the events in Faro three years ago. 

Honchaiyaphum, known to friends as Sang, was married to Shaw but left him in early August that year, the court heard. She briefly left Faro afterwards with their daughters before later moving back to town, and got a restraining order against Shaw. She also began a relationship with another man in town. 

Shaw, meanwhile, left Faro after the separation and moved into the Family Hotel in Whitehorse.

Security camera footage from the hotel showed Shaw leaving his room in the early morning of Oct. 26, 2021, carrying a long-gun case, which he put into a black truck before driving away. 

Shaw arrived at Honchaiyaphum's new home in Faro just before 1 p.m., where her new partner and his friend were about to move a couch in. A verbal disagreement between Shaw and Honchaiyaphum began outside on the back balcony with Honchaiyaphum telling him to leave but Shaw refusing to. 

Honchaiyaphum, the court heard, left a voicemail for a friend saying that Shaw was at her home and asking her to call 911.

At one point, the partner's friend, anticipating a physical confrontation, heard Shaw say, "OK then" followed by gunfire. He saw Honchaiyaphum running from Shaw, according to the admissions documents, before Shaw shot her in the back and she fell to the ground. 

Shaw then shot Honchaiyaphum's partner several times before he was able to flee to a nearby house with his friend, where the occupants tried to help the injured man up the entryway stairs. As they did that, the court heard, Shaw arrived outside and began shooting, with several bullets entering the house and one hitting the partner in the back. 

One of the house's occupants fled to a nearby abandoned building, where Shaw followed her. He shot at the building before returning to the house, where he got through the front door. 

One of the occupants helping Honchaiyaphum's partner, whom they'd brought to the kitchen, went to check what was happening and Shaw fired at him but missed, the court heard. The person told Shaw that Honchaiyaphum's partner wasn't there, and he left. 

A number of eyewitnesses saw Shaw walking around town with a handgun, looking into vehicles. 

Shaw then drove to McCracken's house, about two kilometres away. McCracken, home with his wife at the time, answered the door and an argument began between the two men. Security camera footage from a neighbour's house shows the confrontation, with Shaw repeatedly accusing McCracken of "calling me down," and McCracken denying that.

Shaw appeared to be leaving when he then turned around and shot McCracken once in the back through the glass screen door in front of his wife. 

Shaw then drove about 10 kilometres to another house in the Tintina subdivision that belonged to a man who worked with McCracken and whom Shaw believed was also talking badly about him. He began shooting at the house.

The man was not home at the time, the court heard, but his wife was and initially mistook the gunshots for the sound of the house settling in the cold. She checked outside after realizing that wasn't the case and saw someone shooting at her home from a black truck and shouting to "come outside and fight me like a man." The woman hid inside and called 911, speaking to the operator for several minutes before the call was cut off when a bullet hit the house's power box. 

The RCMP arrived at the property just before 2 p.m. — about an hour after Shaw first showed up at Honchaiyaphum's home — and arrested him without incident, the court heard. Officers found a tactical rifle, a handgun and ammunition in his truck, and he was also carrying a diamond ring, documents including a passport, and about $53,000 in cash, in a fanny pack.

An autopsy confirmed that Honchaiyaphum and McCracken both died from gunshot wounds to the torso, the court heard. While Honchaiyaphum's partner was shot seven times, he survived and was medevacked to Whitehorse and then Vancouver for surgery.

The court took a break after the Crown finished reading the admissions. It then began hearing victim impact statements Monday afternoon, which are expected to continue into Tuesday morning.