SaskatoonA Saskatoon judge says two men were involved in the 2022 death of James Swift, but he couldn’t find enough clear evidence to convict either of murder.Ashtin Ritzand and Coltin Lischka also found guilty of aggravated assaultDan Zakreski · CBC News · Posted: Oct 30, 2025 4:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesJames Swift died after he was stabbed on Aug. 29, 2022. On Thursday, a Saskatoon judge found Colton Lischka and Ashtin Ritzand both guilty of manslaughter in Swift’s death. (James Swift/Facebook)Too many drugs, too many stories.In the end, a Saskatoon judge decided there were too many conflicting narratives to convict either Ashtin Ritzand or Coltin Lischka of second-degree murder in the Aug. 29, 2022, fatal stabbing of James Swift.Similarly, Justice Michael Tochor said he was unsure whether either man tried to kill Swift’s friend Virginia Belhumeur.The pair stood trial earlier this year before Tochor at Court of King’s Bench in Saskatoon, charged with second-degree murder and attempted murder.On Thursday, Tochor rendered his verdict. He did not convict the men on the murder and attempted murder charges, but found them guilty of manslaughter and aggravated assault.”The court had a lot of of inconsistent evidence. It was clear that everybody was intoxicated on the night in question,” Lischka’s lawyer, Nicholas Stooshinoff, said outside court,”There was considerable confusion as to who ended up where and when. And the witnesses had completely different versions of what happened.”While details differed depending on the witness, the basics of how the night started were the same. Longtime friends Swift and Belhumeur were at the Hose and Hydrant Brew Pub in Saskatoon when a car leaving the parking lot hit — or almost hit — Swift in the leg, court heard. Lischka, Ritzand and a third man, Anthony Burley, were in the car, a white Honda Civic.A scuffle ensued, but the two groups patched things up, and Burley invited Swift and Belhumeur to his basement suite in the Evergreen neighbourhood. Lischka was a roommate, having moved in just two weeks prior.After drinking for a bit, the group left in the car to buy cocaine, court heard.James Swift died in a fatal altercation that happened at this rural intersection north of Saskatoon. (Dan Zakreski/CBC News)In the car, there was an argument about who got to hold the cocaine. At some point, the car stopped at a rural intersection just north of Saskatoon near Wanuskewin Heritage Park, according to testimony. Tochor said a reliable narrative of what happened next never emerged.He said that one of the two men, either Ritzand or Lischka, fatally stabbed Swift, and then stabbed Belhumeur. However, he said that he was left with a reasonable doubt over who was the principal and who was the accessory, and whether they had the state of mind to be convicted of murder.The lawyers return to court next month to set dates for sentencing arguments.ABOUT THE AUTHORDan Zakreski is a reporter in Saskatoon.
Saskatoon men guilty of manslaughter, not murder, in 2022 death of James Swift
