JURY RETURNS VERDICT IN MASSIVE GROW-OP CASE

REGINA -- Drawing comparisons to Christ, the self-described head chief
of Turtle Island says he's being persecuted for making "medicine" at
the request of the Creator after a jury convicted him and two
disciples of growing marijuana.

"I'm a messenger. That's all. If they want to kill the messenger, they
can go right ahead. They did it before with Jesus," an unrepentant
Lawrence Hubert Agecoutay, who turned 52 on Christmas, said after the
jury returned its verdict late Wednesday afternoon.

"I forgive them. They did their best," he added. "This is Creator's
way. It is of love, peace and happiness and that's all I offer."

But the prosecution suggested he and five other men were offering a
whole lot more from the 6,000 marijuana plants discovered in massive
greenhouses during an RCMP raid on the Pasqua First Nation. Busted
nearly three years ago, it was the largest grow-op ever discovered in
Saskatchewan. Had the crop not been nipped on Aug. 21, 2005, before it
budded, it was worth between $2 million by the pound and up to $7.5
million by the gram.

While the Crown contended the six men played varying roles in the
operation, the seven women and five men on the jury weren't as
convinced and acquitted three of the accused.

Lawrence Agecoutay, seen as the leader of the group, held his
multi-coloured sacred bundle -- carrying a ceremonial pipe -- between
his hands and bowed his head as if in prayer as he waited for the
jurors to file into the courtroom. The verdicts against him were read
first: Guilty of producing marijuana and guilty of possession for the
purpose of trafficking. Identical verdicts followed for 59-year-old
Chester Fernand Girard, an Ontario man who had the know-how to grow
the crop, and Agecoutay's 48-year-old brother Robert Stanley
Agecoutay, near whose house six large greenhouses were found. Younger
brother Joseph Clayton Agecoutay, 47, was acquitted along with
brothers Nelson Edward Northwood, 58, and Jack Allan Northwood, 55,
who linked up with Lawrence Agecoutay through his website advertising
adoptions by the Anishinabe Nations of Turtle Island.

Robert Agecoutay was acquitted of an additional gun charge, and Girard
acquitted of forcible entry of a house -- a stranger's home to which
he fled when the RCMP's tactical team descended on the grow-op in a
pre-dawn raid.

The verdicts came after the jurors deliberated for about 10 hours over
two days, returning once with questions. They were struggling with
issues of criminal intent and aiding a crime. The strain was evident
as several jurors, including the foreman, began quietly crying as the
three acquitted accused stopped to hug or shake hands with those
convicted before leaving the prisoner's dock.

"You've obviously taken your task very seriously," Court of Queen's
Bench Justice Frank Gerein told jurors as the three-week long trial
drew to a close. "Your verdicts are reasonable."

The Crown asked that those convicted be taken into custody pending
sentencing set for April 4.

"They've all been convicted of very serious offences, and the Crown
will be seeking a very serious sentence," prosecutor Darrell Blais
said. He told the court Lawrence Agecoutay had an outstanding drug
charge in B.C. at the time of his arrest in 2005 for these charges.