A 28-year-old Sylvan Lake man, charged with the first-degree murder of his father, appeared in Rimbey provincial court Friday via closed-circuit TV.
Patrick Freeman, now in custody in the Red Deer Remand Centre, was ordered by Judge W.A. Skinner to return to Rimbey court Sept. 6 and is to remain in custody until that time.
Skinner said a trial date or plea will then be set.
Rimbey RCMP responded to a call to a rural area in Lacombe County at about 4 p.m. on June 24 when Freeman’s 61-year-old father, Patrick Alexander Freeman, was found with “significant” injuries.
He was taken to the hospital in Rimbey in critical condition. The father was later flown by STARS air ambulance to Calgary’s Foothills Medical Centre, where he died of his injuries.
The Rimbey courtroom was filled Friday morning, but emptied quickly after Freeman’s appearance.
The proceedings were delayed for several minutes when a different prisoner showed up on the screen, and they were delayed further when there was trouble with the audio.
When Freeman did appear, he seemed poised and politely replied “thank you,” to the judge when the third court date was ordered.
Freeman made his first appearance in Red Deer provincial court last month.
The Freeman family is from the Bentley area.