SaskatchewanThe country’s highest court has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of Soaring Eagle Whitstone, the gang leader at the centre of the 2019 murder of Tiki Laverdiere in Saskatchewan.Soaring Eagle Whitstone among 10 involved in 2019 murderHannah Spray · CBC News · Posted: Dec 13, 2025 6:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 7 hours agoListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.Soaring Eagle Whitstone, pictured, appealed her conviction for first-degree murder in the death of Tiki Laverdiere, but the Supreme Court of Canada upheld her conviction. (Soaring Eagle Whitstone/Facebook)The Supreme Court of Canada has upheld the first-degree murder conviction of the gang leader at the centre of the murder of Tiki Laverdiere.That means Soaring Eagle Whitstone will continue serving her life sentence, with no chance of parole for 25 years, for the 2019 murder in North Battleford.She was one of 10 people accused in the brutal killing, and one of two convicted of first-degree murder.Whitstone appealed first to the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal, arguing there were errors in the assessment of a witness’s credibility and in findings about her intention to commit murder, but the provincial appeal court upheld the guilty verdicts.Whitstone took her case to the country’s highest court, which also dismissed the appeal in a decision released Thursday.As described in the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal ruling, Whitstone was the “queen” of a gang called the Westside Outlawz, and a relative of Tristen Cook-Buckle, who was murdered in Alberta. Laverdiere was in an Edmonton gang with Cook-Buckle, and she had travelled to North Battleford in the spring of 2019 for Cook-Buckle’s funeral.Somehow, people came to believe that Laverdiere had something to do with Cook-Buckle’s death. A collection of family, friends and local gang members then held Laverdiere hostage and tortured her for information, before killing her.Whitstone exercised a “level of control” over the scene, the provincial appeal ruling said.The others involved included Nikita Cook (found guilty of first-degree murder), Jesse Sangster (pleaded guilty to second-degree murder), Nicole Cook (pleaded guilty to manslaughter), Danita Thomas (found guilty of manslaughter), Shayla Orthner (pleaded guilty to manslaughter). Three others were convicted of being an accessory after the fact to murder and one was convicted of kidnapping.ABOUT THE AUTHORHannah Spray is a reporter and editor for CBC Saskatoon. She began her journalism career in newspapers, first in her hometown of Meadow Lake, Sask., moving on to Fort St. John, B.C., and then to the Saskatoon StarPhoenix.
Supreme Court upholds woman’s 1st-degree murder conviction in Tiki Laverdiere death
