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Calgary manslaughter suspect Collin Dean Oxtoby will learn his fate on June 26.
That’s the date defence lawyer Jim Lutz scheduled Friday for Justice Michele Hollins to hand down a verdict in the case.
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Lutz appeared briefly in Calgary Court of King’s Bench to set the date.
While Oxtoby was not present in court, Lutz asked that Justice Glen Poelman issue a judge’s order to have his client, who is in custody on other charges, brought from remand to hear Hollins’ decision.
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Oxtoby, 50, is charged with manslaughter in connection with allegations he seriously assaulted his then-roommate, Kevin Honish, in the early morning hours of July 8, 2022.
Crown prosecutor Gord Haight argued Oxtoby assaulted Honish, likely hitting him in the head at least twice with a hammer, while evicting him and the dead man’s girlfriend, Julianna Ballantyne, from the home in the southeast community of Albert Park.
Honish was hospitalized several hours after leaving the residence and died July 16 from a severe brain injury.
Ballantyne testified she entered the living room to see Honish bleeding from what appeared to be fresh injuries to his head and Oxtoby standing over him.
Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Akmal Coetzee-Khan said the deceased’s brain injury was cause by blunt force trauma and could have been from blows with a hammer.
But he conceded under cross-examination by Lutz that it could have been the result of falling onto something which caused two crescent-shaped wounds on his head.
Lutz also argued Ballantyne’s evidence was unreliable because she was high on fentanyl at the time of the incident.
The lawyer argued Hollins should accept the evidence of his client’s then-fiance, Rachel Harkiss, who said Honish was fine when he and Ballantyne left the residence after the two men had argued.
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