Trial to be scheduled Wednesday in murder case
Trial dates are expected to be scheduled when a young man accused of fatally stabbing his father and critically injuring his father’s common-law spouse in late 2015 appears in Peterborough Superior Court of Justice on Wednesday morning.
Thomas Chan, 20, is charged with second-degree murder in the Dec. 28, 2015 death of city gastroenterologist Dr. Andrew Chan as well as attempted murder for allegedly trying to kill his dad’s partner, Lynn Witteveen.
A 10-day preliminary hearing, which determines if there is sufficient evidence to set the matter down for trial before a judge with the Superior Court of Justice, began May 1 before Madame Justice Esther Rosenberg in Peterborough Ontario Court of Justice.
The judge ordered the case to trial in a judgement delivered May 15.
Assistant Crown attorney Andrew Midwood is prosecuting the matter, although Crown Attorney Frank Schwalm was also in court during the preliminary hearing. Chan is being represented by co-counsel, city lawyers Dave McFadden and Joleen Hiland.
Thomas Chan was released on $400,000 bail on April 27, 2016 in Newmarket after making about 10 court appearances via video from Lindsay’s Central East Correctional Centre.
He was charged after city police were called by a neighbour to a disturbance at his father’s west-end home on Haggis Dr. at about 3:37 a.m. While en route seven minutes later, police got another call from “an involved party” telling them there had been a stabbing, police said.
Officers arrived to find the 50-year-old doctor dead and the injured then-50-year-old woman, whose name was not released by police.
Witteveen, who was airlifted to a Toronto hospital, was released from an intensive care unit and moved into a rehabilitation centre before coming home about a year ago.
She is also suing Thomas Chan and Andrew Chan’s ex-wife Rosalia Vastano for $3.95 million for negligence.
Court documents filed on Sept. 19, 2016 argue that Vastano had a duty to warn Witteveen and Dr. Chan of an imminently dangerous situation - but she didn’t.