Murder charges against suspects in Richmond slaying tossed out
In a rare move, prosecutors have stayed two first-degree murder charges against a pair of Edmonton suspects alleged to have killed a man in Richmond in 2014.
The charges against Sean Jacob Lee Jennings and David Nguyen were quietly tossed out on June 22, 2017, Crown spokesman Dan McLaughlin confirmed in an email. The two had been charged with the first-degree murder of Theoren Gregory Poitras in a gangland shooting near a Richmond elementary school on Oct. 2, 2014.
Jennings, 29, and Nguyen, 26, had been set to go to trial in B.C. Supreme Court starting June 26.
“The decision to stay the charges in this case was made after further information was recently received by the prosecutor with conduct of the file. After reviewing this information and the rest of the file materials the prosecutor concluded the charge-approval standard could no longer be met,” McLaughlin said.
“Specifically that there was no longer a substantial likelihood of a conviction based on the available evidence. In these circumstances a stay of proceedings is the appropriate course of action.”
He would not say what information the prosecution received.
Jennings’ lawyer, Andrew Nelson, said Monday that he was notified by the Crown five days before the trial was set to start that the charge was being stayed.
“They haven’t told me exactly why they stayed the charges. I mean I have my theories, but I can’t really speculate on why they did what they did,” Nelson said. “I can say that from what we know of the Crown’s case, we are not all that surprised that they decided to stay the charges.”
Nelson, who’s been practising law for seven years, said more senior colleagues have stressed how unusual it is to have murder charges stayed.
“I haven’t spoken to anybody yet who has had a first-degree murder charge stayed. So yes, it is incredibly rare,” Nelson said.
He said his client “was definitely relieved, but as I said, I don’t think he was all that surprised.”
Jennings is still facing a second-degree murder charge in Alberta, where he is represented by another lawyer, Nelson said.