LLOYDMINSTER — Lucas Aaron Oakes, the Makwa Sahgaiechan First Nation man sentenced in 2022 to 7.5 years for a violent string of crimes, including a shooting on Onion Lake Cree Nation and multiple armed carjackings, is headed back to prison.
On Dec. 15, the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) revoked Oakes statutory release, ruling he poses an “undue risk” to public safety after he breached his release conditions.
Oakes, now 29, was initially sentenced in Battleford Court of Queen’s Bench in April 2022 after pleading guilty to nine charges related to a violent crime spree on July 29, 2020. The spree started with a shooting on Onion Lake Cree Nation that left a man with serious injuries, followed by a series of attempted and successful armed carjackings in Lloydminster, and high-speed police pursuits into oncoming traffic that were called off for public safety.
Court heard that Onion Lake RCMP had responded after a man was shot in the stomach and taken to hospital with serious but non-life-threatening injuries. Oakes and Jesse Heathen then drove 30 kilometres south to Lloydminster and tried carjacking two vehicles at gunpoint after they had crashed their vehicle. They were able to steal a truck from an individual in their third armed carjacking attempt.
RCMP in Alberta and Saskatchewan started two pursuits but called off both. At one point, Oakes’s and Heathen’s vehicle drove into oncoming traffic in the westbound lanes on Highway 16, which is a four-lane divided highway.
About two hours later, officers from Maidstone RCMP got a call about a stolen truck near the junction of Highways 16 and 303. The vehicle was located in Lloydminster later that day.
Half-an-hour later, Maidstone RCMP received a report that a truck was stuck near Hillmond. No one was at the vehicle when police arrived but they soon found Oakes and Heathen walking on a nearby road.
With enhanced credit for time served pre-trial, Oakes's sentence left five years to serve. He was released on statutory release with strict conditions on Aug. 19, 2025.
According to parole documents, days later, on Aug. 28, 2025, Oakes failed to return to his designated half-way house by curfew.
He remained unlawfully at large until he was arrested by police on a First Nation on Sept. 10.
The parole board’s review considered Oakes’s extensive and violent criminal history, his poor institutional conduct including assaults and possession of weapons while incarcerated, and his limited progress in rehabilitation programs.
The board considered his Gladue factors, including intergenerational trauma from the effects of colonialism, a childhood marred by poverty, neglect, trauma, and time in foster care.
His next statutory release date is Nov. 13, 2026.
Oakes has a lengthy criminal history with convictions for weapons offences, dangerous driving, assault with a weapon, aggravated assault and resisting arrest.
Parole documents reveal that Oakes “brutally" attacked two males with a machete.
Oakes was a street gang member but parole documents say he has since left.
ljoy@sasktoday.ca
