Murder case goes straight to trial
A man accused of murdering a single mother from Kelowna in 2013 will be tried in B.C. Supreme Court without a preliminary inquiry.
Jay Sinclaire Thomson, 61, was arrested on Nov. 29, 2017, and charged with seconddegree murder in the death of 27-year-old Theresa Neville of Kelowna.
On Jan. 16, 2018, B.C.’s deputy attorney general granted consent to the Crown to proceed by direct indictment, meaning the matter will proceed to trial without a preliminary inquiry.
Normally when a charge is laid in provincial court, serious cases proceed to a preliminary inquiry before trial, Dan McLaughlin, spokesperson for the Crown, said Tuesday.
“In the normal course, after a preliminary inquiry, a court would determine if the Crown satisfied the threshold to have it move to trial,” he said.
Thomson is still facing the murder charge, but he will go straight to trial in B.C. Supreme Court, rather than provincial court.
He is next scheduled to appear in court in Kelowna on April 23 to fix a date for trial.
On June 18, 2013, police responded to a 911 call from a home in the Glenmore area of Kelowna at 12:37 a.m.
On arrival, officers discovered Neville’s body and deemed her death a homicide.
Her two daughters, ages eight and 10 at the time, were home when paramedics arrived at their rented house at 397 Yates Rd.
The children were unharmed and may have been sleeping when their mom was killed, said police.
In 2016, police said they were confident the murder was not a random attack.