Son of man once wrongfully convicted of murder will now stand trial for murder

The Calgary son of Thomas Sophonow, the Vancouver-area man who spent nearly four years in jail for a murder he didn’t commit, will stand trial for second-degree murder.

Provincial court Judge Bob Wilkins agreed with Crown prosecutors Jonathan Hak and Deven Singhal on Thursday there was sufficient evidence to order Christian Thomas Desjarlais to face a jury on a charge of second-degree murder.

Defence lawyer Adriano Iovinelli did not oppose committal for his client.

At Iovinelli’s request, Wilkins imposed a publication ban on evidence in the preliminary inquiry called by the Crown when it began Monday.

Sophonow, who attended the first three days of the hearing, was not present when his son was ordered to stand trial.

Desjarlais was arrested Nov. 5, two days after the discovery of the body of 39-year-old Randeep Singh Dhaliwal in a home in the 100 block of Pineside Pl. N.E.

He’s charged with second-degree murder in the Oct. 31 killing of the city man.

Sophonow spent nearly four years behind bars in the 1980s after being tried three times, and convicted twice, of the killing of a Winnipeg teen.

He was visiting his ex-wife and children in Winnipeg in December 1981 when a doughnut shop waitress was murdered.

The body of 16-year-old Barbara Stoppel was discovered at her work on Dec. 23, 1981. She had been strangled and her remains left in a washroom in the shop.

Sophonow, then a Vancouver doorman, was arrested two months later at his Burnaby, B.C., home and taken to Winnipeg after people said he resembled a composite drawing of a cowboy hatwearing suspect.

He was twice convicted before the Manitoba Court of Appeal in 1985 acquitted him, citing numerous errors in how the jury was instructed.

It wasn’t until 2000, however, that he was exonerated when both the Winnipeg police and Manitoba Department of Justice apologized.

He was paid $2.6 million for his wrongful prosecution and nearly four years he spent behind bars.

Desjarlais, who remains in custody, will appear in Court of Queen’s Bench on June 29.