Crown prosecutors continue to mull over a resolution proposal from the lawyer defending a man charged with fatally shooting a shopper outside Red Deer’s south Walmart last December.
Chase Freed’s lawyer, Rory Ziv, said he had been in email contact with Red Deer chief Crown prosecutor Dominique Mathurin earlier in September, but had not yet heard whether his proposal to settle his client’s case without going to trial had been accepted.
Freed appeared in court through a video link with the Edmonton Remand Centre.
“I was expecting something from the Crown today, or before today, but I have not heard from the Crown,” Ziv told Red Deer provincial court Judge Jim Glass on Wednesday.
Freed is facing six charges, including second-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder. He has also been charged with flight from police, dangerous driving and theft of a motor vehicle.
C.J. “Jim” Williams, 69, was shot and killed outside Red Deer’s south Walmart at about 6:45 p.m. on Dec. 20.
Police said Williams and his wife had just left the store, busy with Christmas shoppers, when he was confronted in the parking lot by a masked man armed with a sawed-off semi-automatic rifle.
Williams was shot and fatally wounded.
The alleged shooter jumped into a waiting SUV with a woman at the wheel. As they fled, police allege Freed fired shots at two other bystanders, but missed them both.
The driver, Crystal Maurice, is facing four charges, including accessory after the fact to murder.
Freed returns to court on Oct. 14.