Two charged in Mayerthorpe RCMP slayings

July 8th, 2007 · No Comments

Michelle Collins, Edmonton Journal
Two men have been arrested and charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of four RCMP officers near Mayerthorpe, Alta., in 2005.

Dennis Keegan Rodney Cheesman, 23, and Shawn William Hennesey, 28, both from nearby Barrhead, Alta., are accused of aiding James Roszko, the man who shot to death four young Mounties on his farm then killed himself.

“It’s not necessarily that they committed the crime directly, but they were somehow involved in facilitating the crime,” Deputy Commissioner Bill Sweeney said Sunday of the two men charged.

RCMP say Roszko was the only other person present when the shots were fired on his property.

Four young officers, Const. Peter Schiemann, Const. Brock Myrol, Const. Leo Johnston and Const. Anthony Gordon were guarding the Quonset hut at Roszko’s farm as part of an ongoing search for drugs and stolen property.

Roszko was a convicted criminal who was known to hate police. It’s not known how he got back to his farm armed with an assault rifle hours after driving away. It is also not known how Roszko was able to sneak into the Quonset where the officers were killed. The hut has a front entrance and a back door.

Schiemann’s sister, Julia, embraced Sweeney after he announced the charges. Through tears, she whispered “thank you.”

Doreen Jewell-Duffy, Gordon’s mother, was also there Sunday, with a tissue in hand.

The families of the four dead officers were contacted about the developments in the case in the last day or so, said Cpl. Wayne Oakes.

One man was arrested Saturday and one on Sunday. The charges were laid Sunday morning. Both men were known to police.

“They were in the same community as James Roszko and were associates over an extended period of time,” Sweeney said during a news conference at RCMP headquarters in Edmonton.

“Today we have been able to provide Canadians with the first significant update on the Mayerthorpe investigation,” Sweeney said.

“The fact that it took 28 months to reach this point speaks to the fact that every case is unique, some will be concluded in short order, some may take years to solve and some may never reach a point of successful conclusion.”

RCMP are “getting closer to that point” of knowing what occurred that day, said Oakes.

Hennesey got to know Roszko after he got out of jail for a sexual assault conviction in October 2001.

People in Mayerthorpe had turned against Roszko in the 1990s, so Roszko started to conduct his business 60 kilometres down the highway in Barrhead, where people didn’t know his reputation.

One of his favourite stops in Barrhead was the Kal Tire shop, where he got to know several young store employees, including Hennesey.

Hennesey is was known for a rough period he went through as a young man, drinking too much and getting into fist fights.

But Hennesey is now married, has two daughters and has changed his ways, says his friend, Chris Harder. “For all of five or six years, he’s been nothing but a good guy. He goes to work, takes care of his family,” he said.

Hennesey met Roszko four or five years ago, then later worked for Roszko on his farm.

On the afternoon of March 2, 2005, Roszko fled his property after two bailiffs arrived to seize a stolen truck. Roszko was gone overnight then reappeared at the Quonset hut he used for a chop-shop and a marijuana grow operation, where he shot the four officers.

Cellphone records show that while on the run Roszko called his aunt between 2:30 and 3 p.m. on March 2. Police later learned he was looking for his mother, Stephanie Fifield. According to the warrants, the aunt told police the call came from the house of an “S. Hennesey.”

Hennesey received several calls on March 2 from Roszko, who was looking for a place to hide his truck. Hennesey later told the RCMP that he refused Roszko’s request, because Roszko would not say why he needed to hide his truck.

In the warrants filed in court, RCMP expressed their belief that “Hennesey is a person on which Roszko would turn for assistance.”

The search warrants show Roszko eventually reached his mother after 7:30 p.m. on March 2. “During the conversation, he mentioned that he had made a will and they should pray for him,” states one of the warrants.

Fifield told her son he couldn’t park his truck at his aunt’s house. However, around 10:30 p.m., Fifield called her sister to ask if Roszko could park his truck in her yard. The aunt relented, went to bed and saw the truck there the next morning — 35 kilometres away from Roszko’s property.

Hennesey’s boss at Kal Tire, Steve Hunter, believes Hennesey has been smeared simply because he knew Roszko.

“There’s no story with Shawn,” Hunter has said. “It’s been almost a year now and if police had anything on him, they would have charged him… Shawn didn’t take his (Roszko’s) truck or help him in any way.”

Hennesey has refused requests for interviews, but in the days after Hennesey’s name first was reported, Hunter became his unofficial spokesman, telling the Barrhead Leader that if Hennesey were guilty of anything, it was being stupid about with whom he chose to associate.

In the Leader story, Hunter addressed allegations found in the search warrants that Hennesey was involved in the marijuana grow-op with Roszko. Hennesey was working 60 hours a week at Kal Tire, Hunter said, making it impossible for him to have had extensive dealings with Roszko.

Cheesman and Hennesey are scheduled to appear in Mayerthorpe Provincial Court on July 12.