A Sylvan Lake man charged with murdering his wife last September was back in court Wednesday.
Satnam Singh Sandhu, 41, appeared in Red Deer provincial court through a closed-circuit video link with Red Deer Remand Centre.
Sandhu has been charged with second-degree murder.
Sylvan Lake RCMP said they were called to a local home at about 10 a.m. on Sept. 11 and found Sandhu’s wife, Kulvinder Sandhu, badly injured.
Satnam Sandhu was arrested at the scene.
Kulvinder Sandhu, 36, died in hospital Sept. 14.
A student of law, representing Sandhu’s Edmonton lawyer, Dan Murphy, told the judge the defence was still awaiting some disclosure, which includes evidence from the police investigation.
He also suggested setting a date for the preliminary hearing, which could take five weeks.
Judge David Plosz suggested not setting a preliminary hearing date until a pre-trial conference is held with a judge.
The conferences are used to discuss the case. Often, the number of witnesses required is whittled down, shortening the trial or preliminary hearing time.
“We’re terribly short of personnel and space. That’s the reason,” Plosz said of holding a pre-trial conference before setting a preliminary hearing.
“If there’s any way of shortening things up, for the benefit of everybody, that’s what we want to do.”
Crown prosecutor Greg Gordon said the disclosure request had been sent to the RCMP and it was expected to take about two weeks to process.
The proceedings were relayed to Sandhu through a Punjabi interpreter.
The case was adjourned until Feb. 5.
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