Man pleads guilty to ammunition-related charge linked to Nova Scotia mass killer

HALIFAX – One of three people accused of supplying ammunition to the gunman who killed 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020 has pleaded guilty to a single charge.

Chris Hansen, a spokeswoman for the Nova Scotia Prosecution Service, says the lawyer for James Banfield entered a guilty plea in Halifax provincial court today on a charge of transporting without authority under a section of the Criminal Code dealing with prohibited ammunition.

Banfield, who is the brother of the gunman’s common-law partner Lisa Banfield, was originally scheduled to stand trial on Jan. 24.

Hansen says James Banfield is scheduled to be sentenced on June 1.

Lisa Banfield pleaded not guilty in May of last year to two counts of unlawfully providing the shooter with ammunition and is scheduled to go to trial in March, while her brother-in-law, Brian Brewster, entered a plea of not guilty last April 13.

The gunman killed his victims in several communities in northern and central Nova Scotia over a two-day period beginning Apr. 18, 2020, before he was fatally shot by police.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 21, 2022.