Judge agrees to delay trial for slaying of Stamps’ Hicks until after 2018 Grey Cup

The start of the trial of a man charged with the murder of Calgary Stampeder Mylan Hicks has been delayed a week on the chance the team plays in the 2018 Grey Cup.

Crown prosecutor Tom Spark said Friday that although a twoweek trial period was available as early as Nov. 26, 2018, he asked Justice David Gates to schedule it to begin a week later.

“The Grey Cup is the 25th,” Spark told the Court of Queen’s Bench judge.

“There’s a lot of Calgary Stampeders who are going to be witnesses,” he said, adding the team could be in Edmonton playing in the CFL championship.

“Mr. Spark, that’s a new one for me,” Gates replied, of the prosecutor’s reason for delaying the case.

Defence counsel Alain Hepner did not oppose Spark’s request.

Nelson Tony Lugela, 19, is charged with shooting Hicks outside the Marquee Beer Market on Macleod Trail on Sept. 25, 2016.

He was committed to stand trial on second-degree murder in May, when provincial court Judge Catherine Skene ruled there was sufficient evidence that a properly instructed jury could find him guilty as charged.

Hicks, 23, was from Detroit and had been on the Stampeders’ practice squad since the previous May. He played his college football with the Michigan State Spartans.

Shortly after Hicks’ death, defensive back Joshua Bell said he was one of a few Stamps at the nightclub celebrating a comeback win against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers hours earlier, adding the young player was “family” to him.

Lugela, who did not address the court Friday, remains in custody pending his trial.