اخبار العرب-كندا 24: الاثنين 8 أبريل 2024 06:39 صباحاً
Kirk Keeping, seen here appearing in court by video in May 2023, is charged with first-degree murder. (CBC)
More than five years after a Mi'kmaw woman was slain in southern Newfoundland, the first-degree murder trial of her ex-partner is finally set to begin Monday in a courtroom in Grand Falls-Windsor.
Kirk Keeping, 40, is charged with murdering Chantel John of Conne River, in January 2019.
The St. Jacques-Coombs Cove man is also charged with the attempted murder of John's biological mother.
Monday's proceedings — which are expected to include jury selection — come after a sequence of delays.
The trial was originally set for jury selection in May 2021 but was delayed when Keeping fired his legal aid lawyers, Derek Ford and Derek Hogan, minutes before a pre-screening process ahead of jury selection.
Keeping told the court at the time that he didn't have confidence in his lawyers and that they hadn't spent enough time with him leading up to the trial.
Keeping's trial has been delayed several times since as he attempted to get the Newfoundland and Labrador government to pay for his counsel of his choice. He also made an application to get money from the Department of Justice to allow him to hire a private lawyer.
That final appeal was denied in November, with the reasoning shielded by a court-ordered publication ban on pre-trial evidence.
Keeping will now be forced to accept a legal aid lawyer, pay for private counsel on his own or represent himself if the court allows it.
When delays are caused by the accused in a criminal matter, the time does not count toward what is called the Jordan rule — which states a case must go to trial within 30 months or the charges are stayed.
Members of the Miawpukek First Nation in Conne River, of which John was a member, have expressed anger and frustration by the delays.
Jury selection is set to begin on Monday morning.
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