By Tina Comeau
THE VANGUARD
NovaNewsNow.com
A Yarmouth woman charged with accessory after the fact in connection with the murder of a Yarmouth man last July has pleaded guilty to the charge and will be sentenced in Supreme Court on Feb. 24.
Alicia Marie Anderson entered a guilty plea to the charge in Supreme Court in Yarmouth last Thursday. A pre-sentence report is being prepared for her sentencing hearing.
The charge of accessory after the fact was laid following the July murder Yarmouth resident Neil Joseph Blades Jr.
Anderson’s case had been scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 25 and 26. Two other people have been charged with first-degree murder. “Her matter was brought forward on Jan. 12,” says Crown attorney Michelle Christenson, at which time her lawyer Colin Fraser waived the preliminary inquiry and a date was set for her appearance in Supreme Court two days later. “On that day . . . she re-elected to judge alone with the consent of the Crown, because they needed our consent, and she entered a guilty plea on her charge for accessory after the fact.”
Asked what type of penalty Anderson could face, Christenson says there is a range of sentencing options. “There’s conditional sentence as a viable option. There’s custody up to, I think, four or five years. It depends on the role the person played, their record if there is one, their personal circumstances, which of course the court would take into consideration,” she says.
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Christenson says the Crown will be requesting a ban on publication of the facts of the case presented during Anderson’s sentencing hearing, since two other people who have been charged in connection with this homicide are still before the court and having the facts made public could impact their trials, if their cases get to that stage. “That would be up to the court to make a determination as to whether they would grant that,” Christenson says.
Jermaine Middleton and Ian Huskins are both charged with first-degree murder in the Blades’ homicide. Middleton’s preliminary inquiry is scheduled for March 4, 5 and 12. The preliminary inquiry for Ian Huskins is set to go forward on May 6 and 7.
A preliminary inquiry is a hearing that is held before a provincial court judge to determine whether there is sufficient evidence for an accused person to stand trial. It also gives the defence an opportunity to further explore the evidence the Crown has against an accused person. In Canadian provincial courts, the evidence presented during a preliminary inquiry is banned from media publication.
Court documents allege that Blades was killed on July 11 in Deerfield. His body was located the following evening under a bridge on the Eel Lake Road.
