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.

Cashaback-Myra fired 'warning shot'

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.

When Cashaback-Myra opened the door, Young was standing in the front driveway looking at him. Cashaback-Myra initially stayed inside and kept the rifle hidden from view; he asked Young what he wanted and Young yelled back several times, "You know what I want," the admissions say.

Cashaback-Myra stepped outside and told Young to leave; when Young saw the rifle and asked what he was going to do with it, Cashaback-Myra answered, "nothing."

Young was standing four to five metres away and "made a number of verbal threats," the admissions say, and his "demeanour and body language were also threatening." He started approaching Cashaback-Myra, who fired a "single warning shot to the side" of Young.

Young then ran at him "in a threatening manner," at which point Cashaback-Myra shot him "several times in less than 3 seconds."

Young, who was still on the driveway and "some distance from the front door," fell and dropped the can of beer he was holding.

Cashaback-Myra was standing about five feet away; he "immediately" went back into the house, shut the door and "entered [into] a state of panic."

The entire interaction, the admissions say, lasted about a minute.

Young's wife, who was at home waiting for him to return, heard the shots and "immediately drove the very short distance" over, discovering her husband "mortally wounded in the driveway, attempting unsuccessfully to get to his feet."

Young "barely managed" to get into the car; his wife drove him to the Mayo health centre, where he died shortly after.

Crime scene forensics, an autopsy and a ballistic report found Young was shot five times.

Cashaback-Myra, in the meantime, fled the scene of the shooting, taking the gun with him. "Many hours later," he called the Mayo RCMP and turned himself in, bringing the gun with him.

'Excessive and unreasonable use of force'

The Crown concedes Cashaback-Myra "acted in the heat of the moment" and was "motivated" by Young's "provocative and apparently aggressive behaviour," the admissions say, shooting at Young "for the purpose of self-defence" against a perceived threat.

Cashaback-Myra, however, also acknowledges that his actions, including the number of shots he fired and the fact that Young was unarmed," amounted to "a disproportionate, excessive and unreasonable use of force."

At the time, Cashaback-Myra was under court orders related to drug charges laid against him in Whitehorse in 2020 and Saskatoon in 2017, both of which prohibited him from possessing firearms.

Cashaback-Myra has entered a guilty plea to one count of possessing oxycodone in the Whitehorse case, down from the more serious charge of possession for the purpose of trafficking. He's also expected to plead guilty to a drug possession charge in the Saskatoon case; the admissions say he was part of a "crew" there involved in the illicit drug trade.

Cashaback-Myra, now 25, will be sentenced in Mayo on June 20.