Failed crack cocaine sale led to fatal 2021 shooting in Mayo, Yukon

A confrontation over a failed crack-cocaine sale led to the 2021 shooting death of a man in Mayo, Yukon, a new court document says. 

Daniel Cashaback-Myra, originally charged with second-degree murder, pleaded guilty to the lesser charge of manslaughter last month for killing 38-year-old Peter Young, with his lawyer explaining he'd been "provoked."

Admissions of fact filed to the Yukon Supreme Court May 3 shed light on what led up to a deadly confrontation between the men on Jan. 10, 2021. 

According to the admissions, Cashaback-Myra, then 22, was living in a Mayo duplex with his girlfriend. Young and his wife, who lived nearby, occasionally purchased crack cocaine from her. 

Young's wife bought crack twice on the evening of Jan. 9, 2021, the document continues — she paid $300 for three "pieces" around 6 p.m., and then exchanged a hard drive loaded with movies for a "rock" around 10 p.m.

The sales were coordinated via Facebook messages, with Cashaback-Myra's girlfriend handing the crack out from the back bedroom window of her house. 

Young and his wife spent that night and early hours of the following morning at home drinking alcohol and smoking crack, the admissions say. The couple eventually ran out of crack and Young's wife sent a $200 e-transfer to Cashaback-Myra's girlfriend around 2 a.m. hoping to get more. 

Cashaback-Myra's girlfriend didn't respond to the e-transfer or subsequent texts; Young's wife went over around 5 a.m. "seeking the drugs she had paid for" or her money back. 

Cashaback-Myra answered her "persistent knocks at the front door," the admissions say, and "was apparently very annoyed to be disturbed in his home at that time of the early morning."

Young's wife "persisted" in demanding drugs or her money back, but Cashaback-Myra had been sleeping and didn't know about any transactions that had taken place. He agreed to ask his girlfriend to return the money before pushing Young's wife away on the shoulder and closing the door. 

Young's wife returned home and told Young. After trying to text Cashaback-Myra's girlfriend one more time, Young, who was "intoxicated by alcohol and crack cocaine" and appeared upset over how Cashaback-Myra had treated his wife, got dressed and walked over.

Young was "yelling angrily, banging and kicking on the door and otherwise trying" to break in after getting to the residence, the admissions say.

Cashaback-Myra "was alarmed by this and armed himself with a loaded Kel Tec model Sub 2000 9 mm non-restricted semi-automatic carbine before going outside to see what was happening." 

The admissions note that Young was 6'2" and weighed 240 lbs., while Cashaback-Myra was 5'6" and 140 lbs.