Murder accused pleads not guilty over late 2018 homicide
Murder accused pleads not guilty over late 2018 homicide
BY JEREMY APPEL ON APRIL 3, 2019.
A man accused of a late-2018 murder in a downtown apartment complex has pled not guilty.
Donald Goodwill, who faces a single charge of second-degree murder, didn’t appear in provincial court Tuesday, but defence lawyer Efrayim Moldofsky was there as agent for Derek Jugnauth, Goodwill’s counsel.
The matter was adjourned to April 16, when a date for a preliminary hearing to determine whether there’s sufficient evidence to proceed to trial is slated to be set.
Goodwill was arrested Dec. 14, 2018, in Saskatchewan, the day after police found a deceased missing person at a Fifth Avenue SE apartment building.
At the time of his arrest, police called the investigation a “complex file,” which will take a “considerable period of time” to piece together.
Accused dealer waves privilege to change plea
Ashley Gackle is changing his plea from guilty to not guilty, but in order to do so he must waive solicitor-client-privilege so the court can hear from his former lawyer, Stephen Bitzer.
The accused “wasn’t fully aware or appreciated the nature of the plea,” argued current defence counsel Marc Crarer.
However, the Crown contends Bitzer said at a Jan. 17 appearance that he told Gackle he’ll likely receive jail time for his plea as part of a joint submission, so the accused had to have known the consequences of pleading guilty.
Gackle, who appeared in court Tuesday via closed-circuit TV from the Medicine Hat Remand Centre, faces one count of trafficking and two of possession for the purposes of trafficking.
The case adjourned to April 9, when the Crown hopes to have Bitzer testify to determine whether Gackle has grounds to withdraw his previous plea.
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