Life in prison awaits a man who killed one teenager and abducted another before being arrested in a dramatic standoff in
Sturgeon Landing last year.
Jonas Budd, 45, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and kidnapping in Court of Queen’s Bench in Prince Albert on Friday, June 24.
Budd had initially faced a first-degree murder charge for fatally shooting Dustin Bird, 17, at a home in Lac La Ronge, a northeastern Saskatchewan reserve, shortly after 3 am on February 18, 2015.
He pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a life sentence with no chance of parole for 14 years – 11 years shy of the maximum 25 years. The Canadian Press reported that Budd shot Bird twice in the chest. He used a rifle.
Budd received another five years in prison after pleading guilty to then kidnapping Bird’s girlfriend, Kayla Natomagan, who was 17 at the time. Budd was the former boyfriend of Natomagan’s mother, according to various media reports.
Budd then fled Lac La Ronge with Natomagan by vehicle. He drove about 450 km before Mounties located the teenager “safe and sound” near Cranberry Portage.
But Budd had again fled, this time on foot into the bush. He managed to reach Sturgeon Landing, a tiny reserve 70 km southwest of Cranberry Portage. There, he holed himself up in a relative’s home.
After RCMP tracked him to the house, a standoff ensued. Budd was in the home for up to 20 hours before police took him into custody, they said, “without incident.”
Natomagan, who was at Budd’s sentencing, told the Canadian Press the 2015 incident has forever changed her.
“I’m not the same as I was. There are days where it’s hard to get out of bed,” she said.
Budd also received time in custody for breaking and entering, and for breaching his conditions. He was to immediately begin serving his sentences concurrently in an undisclosed federal prison.
CTV reported that Budd was agitated at the sentencing, kicking the gate to the prisoner’s box and, after learning his fate, putting his feet up on the box.
When given a chance to address the court, Budd said he wished he had pled not guilty so a trial could reveal everyone’s “lies and deceit and BS,” the Canadian Press reported.
Though Budd had familial connections to Sturgeon Landing, he was reportedly living in Thompson at the time of his arrest.
