Evidence issues are holding up the case of a man charged with second-degree murder in connection with a stabbing in Red Deer in November 2015.
Crown prosecutor Bina Border said in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench on Monday her office and the defence lawyer for Daniel Boyd Sawyer, 33, do not agree on what disclosure should be supplied.
Sawyer’s defence lawyer Chris Archer has requested additional disclosure beyond what the Crown has provided so far.
The Crown prosecutor’s position is that the evidence in question is related to other people’s case files and is not relevant to Sawyer’s case.
If Archer is not satisfied, a disclosure hearing could be set to determine what evidence should be made available, the court was told.
Red Deer lawyer Will Willms, acting as agent for Archer, said the accused’s lawyer does not want to enter a plea on behalf of his client or elect how the case should be tried until the disclosure issue is settled.
Sawyer was charged in connection with the death of a man in the parking lot of the Village Mall on Nov. 18, 2015.
Alan Beach, 31, died following a brawl outside a pub at the shopping area across from Parkland Mall. Sawyer turned himself in nine days later.
The matter was scheduled to return to court on March 6.
Two other men, Andrew Dwayne Werth and Bill Georgopoulos, are also facing charges in connection with Beach’s death. They are each facing charges of manslaughter and accessory to murder.
A preliminary hearing is to be held for the two men in June. Preliminary hearings can be used to test the strength of all or part of a Crown’s case before proceeding to a higher court.