Case delayed

Driver in fatal Lower Sackville crash still in hospital, court told

A Halifax man charged after a fatal car crash in Lower Sackville, N.S., last week that killed a P.E.I. man was unable to appear in Nova Scotia provincial court Friday because he was still in hospital.

Brian James MacDonald, 26, was driving a 2009 Honda Civic that collided with a parked Mercedes-Benz cube van on Hillside Avenue early in the morning on Oct. 3.

Passengers Matthew Ryan, 42, of Lower Sackville and Paul Marchbank, 48, of Bedeque, P.E.I., died at the scene.

A third passenger, Neil Livingstone, 25, of Bedford, was taken to hospital with injuries that were described by RCMP as serious but non-life-threatening. MacDonald was also hospitalized and was arraigned by phone Oct. 3 on two charges of dangerous driving causing death and one of dangerous driving causing bodily harm. He was supposed to have a bail hearing Friday in Dartmouth provincial court, but legal-aid duty lawyer Jill Lacey requested an adjournment on his behalf.

Lacey told the court MacDonald was still at the Queen Elizabeth II Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, in the custody of correctional officers.

Judge Dan MacRury rescheduled the bail hearing for this week.

Prosecutor James Giacomantonio said the Crown is opposed to MacDonald’s release and wants to revoke his bail on a charge of sexual assault, from an incident in Bedford in March. MacDonald, formerly of Lower Sackville, has previous criminal convictions for uttering threats, resisting arrest, assaulting a police officer and failing to attend court. He was convicted of speeding twice in 2016.

RCMP are investigating whether alcohol was a factor in the crash.