A trial date for the accused in last April’s shooting at Nanaimo’s Western Forest Products mill is expected to be established next month.
Kevin Douglas Addison, 47 at the time of the incident, stands charged with two counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. The preliminary hearing, held to determine if there’s sufficient evidence for trial, concluded Friday morning, with April 13 set to fix a date for the trial.
— Karl Yu (@KarlYuBulletin) April 30, 2014
John Gustafson, Addison’s legal counsel, couldn’t comment about specifics, but trial by jury is a possibility.
“By law, murder’s presumed to go before a jury,” said Gustafson. “There’s a procedure where a jury can be removed, but that’s with consent of all parties involved and we’re not at that stage yet.”
Like Gustafson, Scott Van Alstine, Crown counsel, couldn’t offer much of a comment, but he did estimate the trial could occur in the fall.
“That would seem to me to be the earliest, but I have to know the schedule of the defence counsel, the court schedule, those kinds of things all come into play,” said Van Alstine.
While Addison was present for the preliminary hearing, Gustafson said the accused usually doesn’t have to appear in person for administrative appearances, such as pre-trial conferences and fixing a date.