Gangster murder trial delayed again

The trial for the three men accused of killing gangster Jonathan Bacon has been delayed once again.

Jason McBride, Michael Jones and Jujhar Khun-Khun are charged with firstdegree murder in the death of Bacon outside Kelowna’s Delta Grand hotel on a Sunday afternoon in August 2011.

They are also charged with attempted murder in the shooting of four others who were in the car with Bacon at the time.

The trial, which has faced several delays since starting in May, went on hiatus in October to accommodate witness issues, Dan McLaughlin, spokesperson for the BC Prosecution Service, said at the time.

The court was scheduled to reconvene Friday morning to evaluate the progress toward resolving those issues, but it was pushed back to Nov. 8.

In October, talk at the courthouse indicated the trial may take a break until January.

Before the trial began, defence counsel for the accused applied to have the case dismissed because of delays leading up to the trial.

Lawyers cited a July 2016 Supreme Court of Canada ruling that serious criminal cases should be concluded within 30 months of charges being laid unless there are exceptional circumstances.

The accused were arrested in February 2013 and have been in custody ever since.

In June, Justice Allan Betton ruled the application was dismissed and the trial would continue.

In his reasons released in September, Betton said the emergence of co-operating gangster witnesses led to many of the delays, along with the time it took to access emails on an encrypted BlackBerry device.