A retrial for a man accused in a stabbing death outside a central Alberta pub is being moved to Calgary.
Daniel Boyd Sawyer, who is 34, is charged with second-degree murder in the death of 31-year-old Alan Beach.
Beach died from multiple stab wounds he received in a fight outside the Blarney Stone Pub at Village Mall in Red Deer on Nov. 18, 2015.
A trial got underway in Red Deer Court of Queen’s Bench last November, but it became mired in lengthy arguments over admissibility of evidence.
The jury went weeks without hearing anything new and the judge declared a mistrial.
Defence lawyer Chris Archer successfully applied to have the trial moved to Calgary so as to get an earlier retrial for Sawyer, because no trial dates are available in Red Deer through the rest of this year.
Archer has also applied to have the charge against Sawyer dropped due to the lengthy delay in getting the matter to trial.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2016 that trials for provincial cases should take place within 18 months and within 30 months for higher court cases.
It has been 38 months since Sawyer was charged. He has been in custody since turning himself in nine days following Beach’s death.
The Jordan application is to be argued in Calgary on May 1-2.
The Canadian Press
