Gursharanjit Parmar and Joshua Okabe accused of planning murders not pulling trigger
A 21-month investigation, four people charged with two murders and nine drug related offences, four defence lawyers, two branches of prosecutors, two trials.
That's the recipe for a situation that has some people nervous, concerned over fairly strict new guidelines that govern the maximum time within which a trial must be held.
Gursharanjit Parmar, Joshua Okabe, Ricco King and William King, who were charged earlier in the week with murder and drug offences, had their first appearance in a Calgary courtroom on Friday.
"This is going to be a very complex matter," said Okabe's lawyer Kim Ross.
Both Crown and defence will have to be mindful of the Supreme Court of Canada's recent Jordan decision, he said.
The new rules deal with an accused's right to be tried within a reasonable time frame.
With the clock started at the time a charge is laid, Superior Court cases — where murders are tried — will now have up to 30 months to be completed.
"One of the issues that counsel — both Crown and defence — are going to have to direct themselves to is to ensuring these matters are dealt with in terms of the timelines issued by the Supreme Court of Canada's recent decision of Jordan," said Ross.
"That could be difficult."
Men accused of orchestrating the killings, not pulling the trigger
Jason Antonio, 39, died in a northeast Calgary shooting in October 2014. He had been charged the year before when police seized more than $1 million worth of methamphetamine, cocaine and crack cocaine.
Last May Taylor Zanoni, 23, was shot to death in the city's southeast. He'd been charged with drug trafficking after police seized $250,000 worth of drugs including fentanyl, cocaine, meth and heroin.
Parmar, 32, and Okabe, 30, each face two first-degree murder charges in connection with the deaths of Zanoni and Antonio as well as several drug-related offences.
Ricco King, 44, and his father William King, 71, were charged with conspiracy to import cocaine.
The killings are connected despite taking place months apart. Parmar and Okabe are not accused of physically killing Zanoni and Antonio, rather police believe the pair orchestrated the murders.
Organized crime prosecutor Bob Sigurdson says there will be two trials — Parmar and Okabe will face a trial on both murders, while all four men will be tried together on the drug charges.
The Kings are back in court later this month while Parmar and Okabe will return on August 12.
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