Preliminary hearing begins into 2017 homicide case

A preliminary hearing underway in Saskatoon provincial court will determine if there is enough evidence for Alistair Duncan Stewart to stand trial for first-degree murder.

Stewart, 36, is accused of killing 60-year-old John Mcpherson on Dec. 31, 2017. He is also charged with unlawful confinement and robbery.

Wearing a light blue dress shirt, Stewart sat in the prisoner’s box on Monday and listened to evidence that is banned from publication to protect his right to a fair trial.

He was arrested on Jan. 25 after Mcpherson’s body was found in a residential building in the 100 block of Cope Crescent on Jan. 7.

Police were doing a welfare check at the time. They say Stewart and Mcpherson knew each other.

Mcpherson’s death was Saskatoon’s last homicide of 2017.

On Jan. 11, 2017, Rodney Wailing, 45, died from a hatchet wound in his Avenue I South home. Daniel Ivan Joseph Forest was sentenced to nine years for manslaughter.

Bailey Bradley Lonechild, 29, was fatally stabbed in his Avenue M South home on Jan. 17, 2017. Curtis Kevin Morin received a seven-year sentence for manslaughter.

The fatal shooting of Tyler Applegate, 25, happened on July 22, 2017, in the 2300 block of 33rd Street West. Applegate died in hospital on Aug. 10, 2017. The four people charged in connection with his death are still before the court.