Woman wanted in hotel homicide appears in court
A 32-year-old Ottawa woman appeared in court by video Thursday on a charge of first-degree murder after turning herself in to police Wednesday night.
Crystal Bastien surrendered after she was charged with first-degree murder in connection to a homicide at a south-end hotel last weekend.
During her brief Ontario Court appearance Thursday she wore a black hooded sweatshirt with writing across the front.
The judge ordered her not to contact a list of five people and remanded her into custody.
Bastien is set to appear in court again on Oct. 4.
The body of Mohamed Mana, 30, was found in a room at the Residence Inn by Marriott on Walkley Road near Bank Street late Saturday night.
On Tuesday police issued a Canada-wide warrant for Bastien's arrest on a charge of first-degree murder, and said in a news release that she's considered violent.
'Lucky to escape,' lawyer says
Her lawyer, Joe Addelman, said Bastien is not a violent person.
"The police narrative so far has been incomplete," he said in a short statement by phone Thursday morning. "She was lucky to escape that night with her life."
Meanwhile, Ottawa police are looking to identify a second woman seen walking through the lobby of the hotel on Saturday night.
Surveillance video of the lobby shows a woman with a long ponytail walking into the hotel wearing a black shirt and grey pants or leggings.
Report mistakenly released
A confidential report on the incident, containing the names of witnesses and detailed descriptions of the crime scene, was mistakenly released to nearly 200 email recipients early Sunday morning.
Ottawa police have launched an internal investigation into how the mistake was made.
The Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario is also investigating.
People who received the report were asked to either destroy or delete it.
