EDMONTON — One of four found guilty in the brutal 2019 kidnapping, torture, and murder of Bigstone Cree Nation woman Nature Duperron has had his conviction upgraded from second-degree murder to first-degree murder almost one year after the sentencing hearing.
A panel of Court of Appeal of Alberta judges filed a unanimous verdict Aug. 15 overturning Buddy Ray Underwood’s conviction, handed down last August by Court of Kings Bench Justice Robert Graesser.
“We have no difficulty concluding that, had the trial judge applied correct law to his findings of fact, he would have found Mr. Underwood’s act were a substantial and integral cause of Ms. Duperron’s death,” read the decision.
Underwood was initially charged with first-degree murder, as was co-accused Tyra Muskego. Graesser found the pre-meditation required for first-degree convictions had not been proved beyond reasonable doubt, and levels of moral culpability differed between defendants.
Along with his murder conviction, Underwood was found guilty of forcible confinement and kidnapping in the fall 2022. He was handed a sentence of life in prison for his role in the crime, with no chance of parole for 17 years.
Alberta Crown prosecutors appealed Grasser’s decision, and as a result, Underwood’s automatic life sentence will remain, and due to the upgraded conviction, he will not be eligible for parole for 25 years. His cross-appeal for a new trial was rejected by the appeal panel.
Duperron was a 25-year-old mother of three hailing from the Indigenous community of Bigstone Cree Nation in northern Alberta. She is remembered by her mother, sister, and step-father, as well as her children and remaining family and friends as a kind woman fond of sports, arts, and fishing.
Duperron was brutally murdered in 2019 when Underwood and three others attempted to rob her of money and drugs she was said to be delivering. Initially, only her purse was taken, but the group circled back to find her. Duperron was taken into a truck, beaten repeatedly, and forcibly injected with fentanyl.
The horrific treatment of Duperron continued as the group, high on methamphetamine, drove around Edmonton. Underwood was found to have made the ultimate decision to drive the young mother out of town, where she was left to die in a wooded area near Hinton.
A sixth occupant of the truck and Underwood's cousin, Brett Desjarlais, had been with Duperron prior to the incident, and later assisted police with the investigation, including locating Duperron’s body. Desjarlais was given immunity for his role in assisting police.
Though Duperron dealt with her own addiction struggles in her teen years, she had overcome her own substance abuse issues at the time of her death but was selling drugs in Edmonton.
Muskego, hailing from Onion Lake Cree Nation, was convicted of manslaughter, robbery, and kidnapping in 2022, and was handed a sentence of 12 years in prison. Kala Bajusz and Grayson Eashappie pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in 2022, and both received life sentences with no chance of parole for 15 years.
In her victim impact statement given at Underwood and Muskego’s sentencing hearing last fall, Duperron’s mother Cheryl Uchytil expressed the pain and sorrow felt over the last four years in her victim impact statement, noting how learning at least two of the killers are also Indigenous worsened the tragedy.
“It’s like watching a genocide within our own nation,” she said.
Duperron’s step-father and sister also gave emotional impact statements, lamenting the difficulties of explaining the rift left in the family by the heinous crime to Duperron’s three surviving children.
“Her youngest son still cries for her, and there’s nothing I can do or say to take his pain away,” said Summer Uchytil, Duperron’s sister. “How do you explain to a child that he will never see his mommy again for the rest of his life?”
