Email
Print
Letter to Editor
ShareMurder victim faces charges
By Jack Wilson - Red Deer Advocate
Published: September 05, 2008 6:32 AM
A January trial for a man murdered last week was cancelled on Thursday, on a day when his alleged killer adjourned his own case.
Nathan Casey, 27, of Red Deer, who was murdered on Aug. 26, was scheduled to have a preliminary hearing on Jan. 12 on charges of robbery and possession of stolen property stemming from an incident in Red Deer in the spring.
Casey’s lawyer Patty MacNaughton alerted provincial court Judge Jim Mitchell that the preliminary hearing was no longer required.
Meanwhile, Blair Andrew Neill, 41, of Red Deer reserved his plea on the first-degree murder charge until Tuesday.
Lawyer Michael Scrase, acting as agent for Neill , told court that he was getting off the case.
Scrase said later he’s too busy to tackle a murder case, which is extremely time consuming and didn’t mesh with his practice.
Neill will have to be interviewed by the Legal Aid Society of Alberta in order to secure a lawyer.
Neill, who was stabbed in the stomach and suffered some other wounds during an altercation on the night Casey was killed, appeared again in the prisoner docket seated in a wheelchair.
Casey was taken to hospital from an apartment block near 47th Avenue and 54th Street and later died in hospital of his injuries.
Neill was discovered a short time later in a parked vehicle near 55th Street and 47th Avenue.
Police didn’t release the cause of death but it’s believed the victim was stabbed.
Contact Jack Wilson at jwilson@reddeeradvocate.com
