Murder trial set for youth charged in stabbing at Copperfield basketball court
Client: Under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the younger accused can’t be identified.
Charge: Murder
Defense: Charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death last September.
The younger of two brothers charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a Calgary teen on basketball court will stand trial next June. Defence counsel Alain Hepner and Crown prosecutor Vicki Faulkner appeared in Court of King’s Bench Friday to set the two-week hearing beginning next June 17.
“He’s a youth, but my election is Court of King’s Bench,” Hepner told Justice Michele Hollins. Hepner’s client appeared in court via closed-circuit TV from the Calgary Young Offenders Centre.
Faulkner told court she wasn’t available next fall, but Hepner said he could fit a trial into his schedule in June and the prosecutor said she was available at that time. The trial will be held before a judge sitting alone.
As a youth Hepner’s client had a choice of being tried by a youth court judge, a King’s Bench judge sitting along, or by a judge and jury. The 16-year-old is charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death last Sept. 5, of Danillo Canales Glenn.
Glenn, 18, was stabbed at a basketball court on Copperstone Road S.E. Police said Glenn was there with two friends when two individuals approached him and, following a brief altercation, he was killed. Both Hepner’s client and his 18-year-old brother were later charged.
Under provisions of the Youth Criminal Justice Act, the younger accused can’t be identified. Naming his older brother would breach that provision. The two can’t be tried together because the younger accused’s prosecution falls under the YCJA, while the older brother’s case is under the Criminal Code.
The older brother is scheduled to face a seven-day preliminary inquiry next May to determine if there is enough evidence to order him to stand trial. His trial election is deemed to be before a jury unless the Crown agrees to allow the defence to re-elect to have the hearing before a Court of King’s Bench judge sitting alone.
Both brother remain detained in custody pending resolutions to their cases. At an earlier court appearance Faulkner filed notice the Crown would be seeking an adult sentence if the younger brother is convicted. An adult sentence for second-degree murder for a 16-year-old is life without parole for a minimum seven years. If convicted, his older brother would also be looking at a life sentence, but parole ineligibility could be set at anywhere from 10 to 25 years.
Source: The Calgary Herald
Murder