The second murder trial for a Red Deer man charged with the stabbing death of a 21-year-old man in 2005 will be held in Edmonton.
Paul Lionel White, 24, appears on March 11 to speak to his murder charge. An Edmonton Court of Queen’s Bench trial could be set at that time.
June White, Paul’s mother, confirmed on Tuesday that the trial location was moved recently because of the large amount of publicity the first trial garnered in 2008.
The jury pool is much larger in Edmonton and much less likely to have been influenced by coverage of the first trial.
Paul White remains in custody.
The accused has been in custody since a few days after the June 7, 2005, stabbing murder.
Neither Edmonton area Crown prosecutor Michelle Doyle nor defence lawyer Laura Stevens of Edmonton could be reached for comment.
Doyle is away until March 11 and Stevens was out of town on Tuesday.
Paul White was convicted of second-degree murder in 2008 but was granted a new trial by the Alberta Court of Appeal in late February 2010.
The appeal court said that White should never have been forced to conduct his own defence without the benefit of a lawyer.
White, who was serving a life sentence without the possibility of parole for 13 years, was convicted in the death of Grant Shoemaker, 21, of Red Deer.
He was sentenced in August 2008 by Justice Dennis Thomas in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench.
Thomas convicted Paul White, citing evidence that he had wounds consistent with a knife fight and that the victim’s blood was found on White’s shower curtain.
The accused, who was 18 at the time of the murder, went through two experienced lawyers. They both quit the case.
At one point, his girlfriend testified she killed Shoemaker.
The accused also testified that his girlfriend killed Shoemaker, who was stabbed 34 times while he was in his residence.
The girlfriend can’t be identified because she was 16 at the time of the murder and her identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act.
The appeal court said the accused proved completely ignorant of the law and its procedures.
At one point, he referred to the Criminal Code of Canada as “the big book with all the rules in it.”
The three appeal court justices decided there was no evidence that the defendant tried to manipulate the system by delaying his trial.
The court ruled that a defendant with so much at stake shouldn’t have been left to his own resources.
The Crown argued that there had been multiple adjournments since May 11, 2007, for White to retain and instruct new counsel.
The adjournment allowed him two months to find new counsel.
jwilson@www.reddeeradvocate.com