Friend of victim upset as new trial ordered

The thought of enduring a new trial after an appeal court overturned the second-degree murder conviction of Mitchell Harkes fills Colton Lewis with dread.

The Alberta Court of Appeal ordered a new trial Wednesday in the slaying of Lewis’s friend, U of C student Brett Wiese, after a three-member panel of judges ruled that jurors were given improper instructions.

“I’m utterly upset with the decision. The reality of the fact that we have to go through it all from the start was shocking,” said Lewis.

“The reason why it’s so difficult is you get tossed right back into the night of the trauma.”

Lewis was celebrating with friends, including Wiese, at a back-to-school house party in Brentwood on Jan. 12, 2013, when things turned violent after some unwelcome party crashers were ejected from the house.

Wiese and Lewis were stabbed multiple times in a chaotic fight that ensued after the unwelcome guests, including Harkes, returned to the party seeking revenge.

Wiese was stabbed multiple times by Harkes and once by a 17-year-old girl who delivered the lethal blow. The girl was convicted of second-degree murder.

Harkes’s conviction of attempted murder against Lewis has been upheld, along with charges of assault causing bodily harm and break and enter. But the news Wednesday that Lewis will have to participate in a second trial was still devastating.

“It’s incredibly difficult to sit in the courtroom and hear your best friends talk about it,” Lewis said. “It’s the entire community that’s impacted, not just the person that’s on the stand or the families involved.”

Harkes will remain in custody until the new trial.