A Cole Harbour man has been charged with first-degree murder after a victim of a triple-shooting home invasion in the community in November 2014 died last week.
Markel Jason Downey, 22, was awaiting a retrial in Nova Scotia Supreme Court on 21 chargesfrom the incident, including three counts of attempted murder.
A Supreme Court judge found Downey not guilty on all charges in February 2017, but the Nova Scotia Court of Appeal quashed the acquittal this April and ordered a new trial.
Police reopened the investigation after Ashley MacLean Kearse, a 22-year-old Cole Harbour woman who was left paralyzed by the shooting, died in hospital on July 2.
An autopsy was performed and the medical examiner ruled the death a homicide.
Downey appeared in Supreme Court in Halifax on Thursday via a video link from the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth.
The Crown filed a preferred indictment sending Downey directly to trial on a charge of firstdegreemurder and two counts of attempted murder.
The jury trial is set for five weeks beginning May 27, 2019.
Eighteen days of court time have been booked in January for pretrial motions. The Crown is expected to apply to have audio of MacLean Kearse’s testimony from Downey’s first trial admitted into evidence.
“We decided to proceed by direct indictment because a number of the issues have already been canvassed through the first trial,” Crown attorney Scott Morrison said outside court. “This is the quickest and most efficient way to bring this trial to a correct conclusion.
“We received a certificate from the medical examiner and had some preliminary conversations with her. But it takes some time for her to develop her full report. That’s what we’ll be providing to defence counsel as soon as we can.”
Defence lawyer Patrick MacEwen said first-degree murder is obviously the most serious charge in the Criminal Code.
“The Crown chooses which charges to lay,” MacEwen said.
“My client maintains that he’s not guilty of these offences, and we’ll have the trial before a jury.”
Four masked individuals entered a home on Arklow Drive in Cole Harbour on the evening of Nov. 30, 2014. Within a few minutes, one of the intruders shot the three occupants.
The Crown alleged Downey was the gunman. The sole issue at his first trial was the identity of the shooter.
Prosecutors relied on the testimony of MacLean Kearse, whose spinal cord was injured in the shooting. She said she recognized Downey’s voice from her previous contact with him.
The only forensic evidence against Downey was one particle of gunshot residue found on his right hand more than three hours after the incident.
Justice Michael Wood said the Crown’s evidence failed to prove Downey’s guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
“My concerns with respect to the reliability of Ms. MacLean’s identification evidence remain, and the single particle of gunshot residue found on Mr. Downey’s hand does not remove my doubt,” Wood said.
“There are simply too many possible sources of gunshot residue to allow that piece of evidence to overcome the weaknesses in Ms. MacLean’s identification of Mr. Downey as the shooter.”
Downey was just 15 when he won a gold medal in boxing at the 2011 Canada Winter Games in Halifax. He was 18 at the time of the home invasion.
Downey has been back in custody since May 1, when he was arrested on a Canada-wide warrant during a traffic stop on Caldwell Road in Cole Harbour.
“At this point, we’re not making an application for release,” MacEwen told the court Thursday.
