Former Sask. Mountie who killed his lover gets a reduced sentence

Former RCMP officer Bernie Herman enters the court of King’s Bench on the second day of his trial in Prince Albert, Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Liam Richards

A Saskatchewan Mountie who killed his former lover is getting his sentence reduced, following a decision of the Court of Appeal for Saskatchewan released Thursday.

Bernie Herman, a Saskatchewan RCMP officer, shot Braden Herman in 2021 and left his body in a wooded area outside Prince Albert. Despite sharing the same surname, the pair were not related but were in an intimate relationship at the time of Braden’s death.

He was initially charged with first-degree murder, but that was later downgraded to second-degree murder.

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Ultimately, he was aquitted of the second-degree murder charge and convicted of manslaughter in January 2024.

There were three appeals at play in the November 2025 hearing, according to the written decision.

The Crown appealed to overturn Herman’s conviction for the lesser charge of manslaughter. It argued the former officer’s case for manslaughter — that he was provoked by Bernie and acted in self-defense — had no “air of reality.”

Herman appealed both his conviction and his sentence. He argued the judge failed to take his Indigeneity into consideration, or to consider the abuse he suffered from Braden as a mitigating factor.

The court was not moved by his arguments, and denied his bid to have the conviction overturned. But did come to a separate conclusion on the topic of Herman’s sentence.

Originally sentenced to a term of 11 years, the court set that aside and imposed a sentence of seven years, two months and nine days.

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