Couple can’t afford counsel for retrial
Pair charged in death of son applying to be reimbursed for first failed trial
The southern Alberta couple due to face a retrial next June in their son’s death can’t afford counsel, court heard Thursday.
David Stephan, who along with his wife, Collet, faces a charge of failing to provide the necessaries of life, said they’ve had to sell off personal property just to cover past legal bills. And Stephan told Calgary Justice Beth Hughes he wants to make an application for a court order that they be reimbursed for the expense of having to go through a failed first trial.
“We’ve had to liquidate many of our assets,” said Stephan, who appeared in Calgary Court of Queen’s Bench via video link from Lethbridge.
He said they’ll apply to be reimbursed for what he called an illegal trial and improper jury charge “so that we have the finances to ensure that we can once again reengage in this process.”
The couple, currently in the midst of moving to northern Alberta next week, is set to face a second trial in Lethbridge beginning June 3.
In May the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a new trial for the Stephans, who were convicted of failing to provide the necessaries of life to their 19-month-old son, Ezekiel, who died in 2012.
The new trial was ordered after lawyers argued that contrary evidence from medical experts led the trial judge to issue a misleading charge and did not “give the jury the tools that they needed to decide this case properly.”
Hughes gave Stephan three weeks to file motions for courtordered legal funding and his application for reimbursement.