Judge chastises defence lawyer in murder case

A Medicine Hat judge lit a fire under a Calgary defence council to get moving when it comes to two assault charges a man also accused of seconddegree murder.

Aaron Raj Anand-Ford, 22, appeared before the Medicine Hat Courthouse by CCTV from the Medicine Hat Remand Centre for the assault charges that stem back to May 29, 2016.

That’s almost five months prior to the death of 24-yearold Dustin Hewer on Nov. 5, 2016, over which Anand-Ford faces second-degree murder charges.

A local agent appeared on behalf of Anand Ford’s Calgary defence counsel, saying they’d been given instructions to either request an adjournment, or — if the next step was required — to set down a trial date for Aug. 18.

But both Crown and judge balked at such a lengthy time period before what would just be a 180-minute trial.

“That’s nonsense,” said Judge Ted Fischer, saying he wants to see the lawyer’s calendar to prove that he can’t do the trial until then.

Anand-Ford remains in custody due to the seconddegree murder charges, and the Crown said they want to proceed with the assault charges, and there are “many many dates” available before the proposed one in August.

Anand-Ford’s co-accused for the homicide, Jacob Peter Porfoun, pled guilty to a charge of manslaughter charge earlier this year. A trial date has yet to be set for Anand-Ford.

Trial set

A three-day trial on May 2, 3 and 4 has been set for a man who Crown prosecution wanted designated as a dangerous offender.

A not-guilty plea was officially set on the record Wednesday at the Medicine Hat courthouse by Michael Christopher Delmas, who remains in custody after being denied bail on Sept. 27.

The 34-year-old man was arrested in April 2015 on two counts of sexual assault, and one count of choking with intent.

He entered snap guilty pleas, with sentencing delayed for nearly a year, while the Crown obtained permission from the Attorney General's office to seek a dangerous offender designation for Delmas due to him also having two previous sexual offence convictions.

Delmas was originally denied a request to have his guilty pleas withdrawn in June 2016, having obtained legal counsel. In September, the Court of Appeals ruled that the withdrawal of the guilty pleas should be allowed — sending everything back to square one.