Article content
It will be fall 2025 before Calgary murder suspect Robert Joseph Matthews will learn his fate.
Defence counsel Michael Bates, appearing for trial lawyer Rebecca Snukal, told Calgary Court of King’s Bench on Friday that a three-week jury trial has been scheduled to begin Sept. 8, 2025.
Article content
Jury selection will take place Sept. 4, Bates said.
“There’s a September trial date to be confirmed on the record, Sept. 8, 2025, for three weeks,” Bates told Justice Rosemary Nation.
Article content
Crown prosecutor Rebecca Bell-Moratto said because the dates are beyond the 13-month maximum set by the court, the lengthy delay will have to be approved by Associate Chief Justice Blair Nixon.
Bell-Moratto also asked that Matthews, who remains in custody and was excused from attendance on Friday, be brought to court next Friday to confirm he was waiving any delay argument in light of the date being set.
Matthews, 25, is charged with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting last Sept. 9 of Calgarian Jordan Jacques-Vetten.
Jacques-Vetten, 33, was killed in the early morning hours of that day in the 1700 block of 18 Ave. N.W. in the city’s Capitol Hill neighbourhood.
On Jan. 10, police announced they had charged two individuals in connection with the killing, Matthews and an 18-year-old Chestermere man who was only 17 at the time of Jacques-Vetten’s death.
As a result, the other accused is charged under the Youth Criminal Justice Act and can’t be named.
He has elected to be tried by a youth court judge sitting alone and the 18-day hearing is set to begin next Jan. 21 and run until Feb. 19. The teen’s lawyer, Adriano Iovinelli, has also scheduled a May 23, bail hearing for his client.
Share this article in your social network
