Saskatoon judge acquits Andrew Rosenfeldt of killing Nykera Brown

Nykera Brown’s mother screamed loudly as she stormed out of a Saskatoon King's Bench courtroom, the anguish in her voice evident after a judge declared her 20-year-old daughter's boyfriend not guilty of killing her. 

The crowded courtroom shattered on Friday when Justice Heather MacMillan-Brown said the Crown had been "unable to surmount" the high burden of proof necessary for a second-degree murder conviction, leaving her no choice but to acquit Andrew Rosenfeldt.

The decision brought a dramatic close to a three-week, judge-alone trial that focused on whether Rosenfeldt was the person who fatally shot Brown.

Brown died on Nov. 15, 2022 from a single gunshot wound to the head. Her body was found inside the couple’s Avenue P South apartment.

Rosenfeldt and Brown were both members of the Terror Squad street gang. Rosenfeldt, who was on house arrest with an ankle monitor, sold drugs from the apartment.

In the courtroom, he sat silently in the prisoner’s box, visibly anxious before the judge delivered her lengthy ruling.

Members of Brown’s family could be heard sobbing as they listened to MacMillan-Brown explain her reasoning. She repeated the core principles of criminal law: the presumption of innocence and the requirement that guilt be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

That burden never shifts, she said.

During the trial, the Crown had argued Rosenfeldt killed Brown out of fear that she was preparing to leave him and disrupt his drug-dealing operation, pointing to his admitted lies to police after her death — including a false claim that masked intruders had broken into the apartment and shot her. He also claimed he didn’t hide the gun that killed her, but later admitted he had. 

His blatant lying does not mean he's guilty, the judge ruled.

The defence argued at trial that Brown died by suicide, relying on evidence of mental-health struggles, prior crises, and testimony that it was physically possible for her to have pulled the trigger on herself. 

“At law, however, my role was not, and could not be, to decide between two extremes," MacMillan-Brown told court. "My role in this case was to answer the question, 'Did the Crown prove Rosenfeldt guilty beyond a reasonable doubt?'”

Brown’s mental health in the months before her death played a big part in the trial.

The judge referred to police encounters, journal entries, and testimony showing periods of acute crisis alongside moments of stability, insight, and hope.