Trial dates set for Duggan
Jury trial to begin two years after woman’s death
A ve-week judge and jury trial, beginning next September, has been scheduled in Nova Scotia Supreme Court for a Bayhead man charged with rst-degree murder.
Ernie Ross (Junior) Duggan, 50, of Bayhead, is charged with killing his neighbour, 58-year-old Susan Butlin.
His trial is slated to begin Sept. 16, 2019, one day short of two years after Butlin’s death on Sept. 17, 2017. e trial is to conclude on Oct. 18.
Two weeks of voir dire hearings have also been set, from April 1 to 5 April 8 to 12, 2019.
Crown attorneys in the case recently made the rare move of cancelling a preliminary inquiry that had been scheduled to begin this fall.
“We felt the public interest would be preserved by proceeding in this fashion,” co-crown Peter Craig said after that hearing, citing time delays as one of his areas of concern.
Duggan’s defence attorneys had planned to call as many as 39 wit- nesses for the preliminary inquiry.
Duggan had also been charged with the attempted murder of RCMP o cers related to a shootout in a Tatamagouche cemetery shortly after the murder.
ose charges were dropped at the previous hearing and replaced with several others, including intentionally discharging a rearm while being reckless as to the life of another person; possessing a weapon for purpose dangerous to public peace, occupying a motor vehicle while knowing it contained a rearm and possessing a rearm without a licence.