Man accused of firing shotgun in school still looking for lawyer

The man accused of using a shotgun to gain entry to an empty Penticton school earlier this month is still trying to find a lawyer.

Yvon Omer Martel, 59, made a brief appearance Wednesday in provincial court in Penticton via videoconference from the Surrey Pretrial Services Centre, where he’s being held in segregation.

He told the court he wants to speak to the lawyer who represented him as duty counsel at his first court appearance Dec. 12, but didn’t know the lawyer’s name and hadn’t taken any steps to get it.

“Some of these (charges) are relatively serious and could result in mandatory jail terms, so you need a lawyer,” Judge Gale Sinclair told him.

Martel was subsequently provided with the lawyer’s name by the court clerk and ordered to appear again Jan. 11.

He’s charged with assault, break and enter with intent to commit an offence, uttering threats, unlawfully discharging a firearm, and using a firearm to commit an indictable offence in connection with the school incident Dec. 11.

Martel is alleged to have gone to Ecole Entre-lacs on Nelson Avenue after leaving the nearby scene of a domestic dispute with his spouse, during which he fired a single shot into a telephone that also damaged a TV and wall. He then allegedly used the same shotgun to blow out a lock at the school, inside which Mounties found him sitting and having a smoke while awaiting their arrival.