A man charged with attempted murder in a machete attack earlier this month appeared in court on Wednesday in a wheelchair.
Quentin Strawberry, 38, made his first appearance on the charge in Red Deer provincial court by a closed-circuit video link with the Red Deer remand centre.
Dressed in orange prison coveralls, Strawberry was wheeled into the remand centre’s video room by a sheriff.
Strawberry appeared to groan loudly as his appearance began.
Defence lawyer Maurice Collard asked that Strawberry’s case be set over to Jan. 8.
“Mr. Strawberry consents to his remand in the interim,” Collard told Red Deer provincial court Judge Jim Glass.
Collard said outside court he did not want to say why his client was in a wheelchair without consulting him first.
RCMP arrested Strawberry on Dec. 2 after police were called to a downtown apartment building. When they arrived, they found a man suffering a head wound after allegedly being attacked with a machete.
Strawberry, who had been released on bail only two weeks earlier on a second-degree murder charge, was arrested and charged with attempted murder, obstructing a police officer and six counts of breaching his release conditions, which included a 24-hour curfew and an order that he not possess anything intended to be used as a weapon.
Police allege Strawberry failed to comply with all conditions, and he was charged with breaching them on Nov. 20, 25 and 26.
Strawberry and co-accused Jeniffer Lee Caswell, 37, were charged with second-degree murder and assault causing bodily harm in connection with the Feb. 28 death of Joseph Junior Alfred Gallant, 45, and the injuring of another person in Grandview.
RCMP were called to a Grandview home around midnight March 29. Neighbours phoned 911 after Gallant, who had been stabbed, called for help. The father of two died later in hospital.
A preliminary hearing for Strawberry and Caswell is set to begin on Feb. 28.