Trial dates set for next year in Loretta Saunders first-degree murder case
Posted Sep 25, 2014 11:28:17 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
HALIFAX – Trial dates have been set in the case of two people accused in the death of Halifax university student Loretta Saunders.
A four-week jury trial is expected to start April 20 in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court for 26-year-old Blake Leggette and 28-year-old Victoria Henneberry.
Leggette’s lawyer, Terry Sheppard, said four weeks should be enough time.
“We’ll work hard and make sure the issues going to be dealt with at trial are focused and narrow,” he said today at Nova Scotia Supreme Court.
Leggette and Henneberry each face a charge of first-degree murder in the death of 26-year-old Saunders, who went missing from her Halifax apartment in February.
Her body was found in a wooded area off the Trans-Canada Highway in New Brunswick two weeks later.
Pat Atherton, the lawyer representing Henneberry, has asked the court to hear a motion for separate trials.
Sheppard said he’s still undecided on that matter.
“I haven’t taken a position on that yet, so I’m going to wait and see Mr. Atherton’s brief, I’m going to wait and see what the Crown has to say about that, and then take instructions form Mr. Leggette on whether we would oppose that application, or join with Mr. Atherton in that application.”
Judge John Murphy decided Atherton’s request will be dealt with in court before the trial starts for the two accused, but no date was set for that hearing.
If Atherton’s motion is successful, the pair will not be tried together but at least one trial will go ahead on April 20.
