Police witnesses took the stand today as the trial opened for a Red Deer man accused of organizing and executing a murder.
Brandon Neil Prevey, 29, was shot and killed at about 3 a.m. on April 5, 2009, while sitting in a Jeep parked outside a home on Ibbotson Close in Red Deer.
Christopher Martin Fleig, 28, is charged with first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit murder in relation to his alleged role in the killing.
The Crown’s theory is that Fleig and two others targeted a different man who drives the same vehicle as the one in which Prevey and an unnamed woman were seated. Someone opened fire from a black car that was driving by, sending a hail of bullets through the driver’s side door and window of the Jeep.
Crown prosecutor Jason Snider said the Crown plans to show that Fleig ordered the killing in relation to his “drug business” and enlisted two other men to help execute the deed.
Snider further alleged that, regardless of who was the target, there was an intention to have someone shot.
Fleig, represented by Calgary lawyer Allan Fay, sat impassionately in the prisoner’s box, occasionally asking questions of the sheriff at his side, while Snider laid out an overview of the Crown’s case.
Snider and co-counsel Tony Bell opened their case by calling police witnesses to lay out the physical evidence in a trial that has been booked for the next five weeks.
The Crown says it will present evidence, including testimony from people who were at the house as well as from neighbours, police and experts.
A voire dire, or trial within a trial, will be held next week to determine the admissibility of evidence that is being challenged by the defence. Justice Kirk Sisson is presiding over the judge-alone trial in Red Deer’s Court of Queen’s Bench.
Testimony continues this afternoon with evidence from a psychiatrist whose comments will be included as part of the voire dire.