In Calgary courts: Sentencing hearing delayed for youth convicted in fatal stabbing of Calgary teen on basketball court​on April 11, 2025 at 6:05 pm

“Ms. Faulkner, there has to be a solution that does not have this matter adjourned for almost a year,” Dilts suggested.

“Absolutely, then we can proceed to trial as set. We’re set for trial in the next five weeks,” the prosecutor said.

“The Crown is certainly available (then).”

Dilts wasn’t prepared to force Xu to proceed without counsel and agreed with a request to schedule a five-week jury trial beginning April 27, 2026.

Xu, 22, is charged with second-degree murder in the June 30, 2023, death of his mother, Alice (Jingying) Al, 56.

He was arrested shortly after police attended the 1400 block of 29th Avenue N.W. around 3 a.m. that morning.

Xu, who remains in custody, was not present in court on Friday.

Convicted killer Ronald Abraham will face an Aug. 8, sentencing hearing for his role in the beating death of a Calgary man whose hog-tied body was found in his burned out residence.

Defence lawyer Deborah Hatch on Friday objected to suggestions Bobrosky’s case be adjourned for three months while he completes a restorative justice program run by the John Howard Society.

But Crown prosecutor Alexandra Russell said that’s how long the charity requires to complete its conflict resolving program with Bobrosky, which will include a face-to-face meeting with his accuser.

“Mr. Bobrosky is proceeding with a restorative justice process on a pre-plea diversionary path,” Russell told Justice Nancy Dilts.

“We understand that that process is ongoing. We’ve had an update from the John Howard Society that they require three months further.”

But Hatch said her client has already done all that has been asked of him.

“He was told at the end of January that his readiness was approved to meet with the complainant. He has been waiting and willing to do so since then and completed the counselling that was asked of him.”

Hatch told Dilts her client’s case has had a long history which included him being convicted at his first trial, before that was overturned on appeal and a new hearing was ordered.

“The issue in this case is manslaughter versus murder,” she said.

Snukal said she would be reluctant to start Hood’s trial on its currently set date of April 22, knowing the Crown will be seeking to call its own expert.

“I would like to know what that evidence would be in advance,” she said.

“His (FASD) assessment did come back indicating he has some significant cognitive difficulties so this is a very important issue that needs to be addressed fully.”

Snukal also indicated Hood was waiving any Charter argument over unreasonable delay, conceding most of the time it has taken to get the trial scheduled is on the defence.

The lawyer asked that jury selection now take place next Jan. 29, with the trial commencing Feb. 2 for two weeks.

Hood, 32, is charged with second-degree murder in the Feb. 22, 2022, beating death of Marshall Rath.

He’s accused of attacking Rath at the behest of his new lover, Jordan Smith, who had been dating and living with the deceased, but their relationship had ended.

Calgary murder suspect Michael Adenyi conducted internet searches into how police investigate kidnappings and homicides, a forensic expert suggested Wednesday.

Const. Derek Havens told court he conducted an analysis of the cellphone seized from Adenyi following his arrest in the fatal stabbing of city woman Vanessa Ladouceur.

Havens said he was asked to concentrate on activity on the phone between Jan. 1 and March 18, 2022, the day Ladouceur was attacked in the city’s Beltline district on her way to work.

But the member of the Calgary Police Service digital forensics team said he found two searches of subjects whose dates weren’t initially apparent.

“I also included all artifacts that do not have a time stamp,” Havens told Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail.

“I was able to determine . . . the time stamps for each of them,” he said, of searches conducted on July 28, 2021.

Dunlop, 50, is charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of sex-trade worker Judy Maerz, 58.

Defence lawyer Allan Fay had argued the evidence of Furlan’s homicide had sufficient differences so as to not be strikingly similar to the killing of Maerz.

But Feasby agreed with the prosecution the differences, which included the fact Furlan was strangled and Maerz was stabbed to death, weren’t significant.

“I am not persuaded that the dissimilarities make it unlikely that the same person committed the two acts,” the Calgary Court of King’s Bench judge said.

“Though a different mode of killing was deployed in each incident, both killings were violent and seemingly occurred during or proximate to a sex act.”

Feasby noted there were multiple similarities between the killing of Furlan in August 2009, and Maerz’s slaying two years ago, including that they both occurred in Deerfoot Athletic Park off 8th Avenue N.E.

Both victims also worked in the street sex trade, both killings occurred around 3 a.m., and both appeared to have occurred during sex, with Dunlop admitting he choked Furlan during intercourse and Maerz was found naked with her pants around her ankles, he said.

Adenyi, wearing a hospital gown and with several fingers bandaged, showed no indication he was uncomfortable as he was led to a telephone room and left for 20 minutes and then taken to a police interview room.

Before being taken to those rooms Stock did a secondary pat down of the accused.

At one point the officer offered Adenyi a second chance to contact a lawyer, Stock said.

On the video Adenyi, wearing a mask over his mouth, made an inaudible response.

“It was hard for me to hear, but I believe he said ‘no,’” Stock told Di Lorenzo.

“I advised him that he can call a free lawyer. Sometimes people don’t know if they have to pay for it, or what the process is.”

“Did he seem to understand where he was?” the prosecutor asked.

“He did,” Stock said.

The officer ultimately brought the accused some food and a jacket, after Adenyi indicated he was cold, before placing him in an interview room for detectives to speak to him.

“He asked about turning up the heat in the room because he was cold and I didn’t know if there was a way of turning up the heat or not,” Stock said about bringing Adenyi the jacket.

“Mr. Leung came to a stop prior to completing the left-hand turn onto Aero Gate,” Koudmani said.

“He stated in his traffic collision report that he had difficulty seeing because the sun was in his eyes.”

She said a traffic reconstruction expert determined that neither speed, nor impairment were factors in the collision.

Koudmani also told Bascom that Leung had no criminal record and no history of driving offences.

While the Crown and defence agreed on the fine they proposed different periods of time for the suspension of Leung’s driving privileges.

Savage sought a minimal prohibition of 15 days, noting Leung is the primary driver for his wife, while Koudmani sought a 90-day prohibition.

Before Bascom sentenced him Leung addressed the court.

“Please accept my sincere apologies for the harm that has been done by this collision and the loss of your loved one,” he told the victim’s survivors.

Bascom accepted Savage’s submission his client had no intention of causing a crash.

An RCMP accident expert collected crash data from both vehicles, Balogun said.

“Prior to the collision (the Escalade) had been travelling upwards of 148 km/h, whereas (the Civic) was travelling 99 km/h,” the prosecutor told Dilts.

The posted speed limit on the roadway is 100 km/h.

“Multiple witnesses at the scene described the accused’s driving pattern as reckless and that when the pass was initiated, there was no way that she would have been able to complete the pass safely.”

Dilts also heard victim impact statements from Glenn Burke, his surviving son, Matthew, and the dead woman’s sister, Lola Pascale.

Pascale said the tragedy seems “like some cruel joke that we’re all going to wake up from.”

Fagan told Dilts his client has also suffered psychologically from the crash with post-traumatic stress disorder and depression.

Along with the conditional sentence Homer, who now lives in Fox Creek, northwest of Edmonton, is prohibited from driving for three years.

Among the stab wounds suffered by Calgary homicide victim Vanessa Ladouceur were injuries suggesting she tried to fend off her attacker, a pathologist testified Monday.

Dr. Akmal Coetzee-Khan testified Ladouceur suffered at least eight stab wounds, including two wounds to her left hand that could have been caused by a single, or two separate stabbing motions.

“There’s a perforated stab wound to the left hand with associated fracture injuries to the carpal bones and an associated stab wound injury to the left thumb which could be an extension of the perforated stab wound,” Coetzee-Khan told Crown prosecutor Carla MacPhail.

The medical examiner said the majority of the injuries suffered by Ladouceur when she was attacked on her way to work the morning of March 18, 2022, were to her head area.

“There were multiple sharp force trauma (wounds),” Coetzee-Khan said.

“The sharp force trauma included six stab wounds to the face, head, neck region.”

Charged with first-degree murder in Ladouceur’s death is Calgarian Michael Adenyi.

It’s expected defence lawyer Kim Ross will argue his client was not criminally responsible by reason of a medical disorder at the time of the victim’s death.

Coetzee-Khan testified the multiple wounds would have caused bleeding from several areas of Ladouceur’s body.

He said the 31-year-old was also stabbed in the left shoulder, a perforating wound that exited her back.

“There’s blood loss that’s occurring from multiple sites,” Coetzee-Khan said.

“The cause of death was determined to be multiple sharp force trauma injuries and the manner of death was determined to be homicide.”

The pathologist said the hand wounds weren’t surprising considering most of the injuries suffered by Ladouceur were to her head area.

“They might not be, but they could be considered defensive injuries, especially with injuries that are located towards the face. A reaction usually from a person having injuries towards their face would be to protect their face and they could have stab wounds that could injure the hand,” he said.

“That could be considered defensive injuries.”

Last week jurors viewed extensive CCTV footage tracking both Ladouceur and Adenyi in the moments leading up to the attack.

“The video shows Ladouceur leaving her residence at around 6:27 a.m. and heading eastbound on 10th Avenue S.E.

Minutes later, Adenyi is seen exiting an apartment building at 10th Avenue and 1st Street S.W., pushing a bicycle, wearing a light-coloured jacket and carrying a backpack.

The trial is scheduled to last four weeks.

KMartin@postmedia.com

X: @KMartinCourts