EDMONTON - A trial date has been set for Travis Vader in the murder of St. Albert seniors Lyle and Marie McCann in the summer of 2010.
The trial is set to take place in the spring of 2016, running from March 7 to April 8 of that year.
Jury selection is slated to take place on March 3, 2016.
If the trial goes ahead at that time, it will be nearly six years after the McCanns disappeared while on a trip to B.C. to see their daughter. Their bodies have never been found.
Vader was publicly identified as a suspect by RCMP within weeks of the couple’s disappearance, but was not charged in the case for nearly two years, until the two first-degree murder charges were laid in April 2012.
The charges were then suddenly stayed in March 2014, weeks before Vader’s trial was set to begin. The charges were just as suddenly recommenced on Dec. 19.
Speaking to the media outside court, defence lawyer Brian Beresh said no new evidence has been provided to him.
"I’m led to believe there is no new evidence," he said.
Beresh said it would be an abuse of process for the prosecution to gain an advantage by delaying a trial, and said one of the defence applications will be that the prosecution can’t use any evidence found in the interim.
"If this delay infringes on his right to a fair trial, that will certainly be an issue we’re going to raise and ask for the appropriate remedy," he said.
When asked what that remedy would be, Beresh said a judicial stay of proceedings.
Vader is currently under house arrest with $25,000 bail.
More to come ...
