TO MEAN TO SUCCEED Saturday Night Live vaulted Chevy Chase to stardom — it also made him unlikable
IN SEARCH OF THE ELUSIVE SPIRIT BEAR
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Red Deer Advocate THURSDAY, FEB. 19, 2015
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Your trusted local news authority HOMELESSNESS
Housing crisis feared BY SUSAN ZIELINSKI ADVOCATE STAFF Red Deer’s daytime warming centre for the homeless is attracting 65 people a day on average. “It is a lot of people. The most we’ve seen in any one day is just over 80, but 65 is the average. That’s all adults, most of whom identify being from Red Deer. Eighty per cent are men,” said Stacey Carmichael, director of programs with Central Alberta’s Safe Harbour Society for Health and Housing, on Wednesday. The warming centre, located at Seventh-day Adventist Centre at 5014 49th St., opened in November and will operate until April 30. Carmichael said the response to the warming centre clearly shows the city needs more housing options, like apartments, basement suites and other affordable housing solutions for the hardest to house, those who are chronically and episodically homeless. “It says to me we have a housing crisis in our community. That’s the biggest thing. We are making good strides with our plans to end homelessness. We have excellent programs in place. The missing component in all of that, in my opinion, is housing options.” The warming centre was developed to fill the service gap after Berachah Place closed its doors in October. In addition to the warming centre, Safe Harbour extended its day support program for those with physical and mental disabilities, illnesses and those under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
Photo by JEFF STOKOE/Advocate staff
A small memorial shrine for Jon Wood was set up on the steps of the Red Deer provincial courthouse in Red Deer on Wednesday.
Sentencing delayed in Wood case BY ADVOCATE STAFF Sentencing has been delayed for a Brooks man convicted of killing a Red Deer taxi passenger to allow Crown and defence to review a large number of victim impact statements. About 20 victim impact statements were received by the Crown in the death of Jonathan David Wood, 33. Wood was killed on Nov. 2, 2013, while riding home from a bar in a taxi. Tyler James Wilson, 19, pleaded guilty in December 2014 to dangerous
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driving causing death. A charge of impaired driving causing death was withdrawn. His sentencing was scheduled for Wednesday in Red Deer provincial court before Judge James Glass. Friends, family and supporters of Wood filled the court room, as they have throughout Wilson’s court proceedings. Crown prosecutor Ed Ring asked Glass to have Wilson’s sentencing postponed to a later date. He noted the volume of victim impact statements as the reason. Both Crown and defence counsel
Lorne Goddard are required to review the statements and determine their admissibility. Goddard said his client was also going to surrender himself into custody ahead of sentencing. Wilson’s bail was revoked and he will await sentencing in jail. The next sentencing date for Wilson is on March 3 in Red Deer provincial court. Ring estimates it will take half a day to complete the matter. The maximum sentence for dangerous driving causing death is five years in custody.
Malley’s mother-in-law takes the stand for the defence Malley and his wife, Christine, had assisted with home renovation projects on Poelzer’s residence, a home she has lived in for more than 40 years. But it wasn’t until after his arrest The defence has opened its case in the trial of a former financial advisor that they got around to pouring a conaccused in the Innisfail bombing death crete pad at the back of the residence. That pad has gained relof a client. evance to the trial as the Brian Malley is acdefence claims the metal cused of first-degree murpipe that Malley purchased der in the death of Victoin July 2011, as well as two ria Shachtay. Shachtay was end caps, encased the natkilled when she opened a ural gas line to protect it Christmas present left on from the concrete. her doorstep. The gift disThe Crown, however, guised a bomb, which detosays Malley used the metal nated as she opened it on pipe — a six-inch long, twoNov. 25, 2011. inch wide steel nipple (pipe Defence counsel Bob with threading at both ends) Aloneissi’s first witness on — in the construction of the Wednesday was Malley’s Brian Malley bomb that killed Shachtay. mother-in-law Francis PoMalley purchased a piece elzer. Malley stayed with Poelzer in Edmonton after he was of pipe matching the description from granted bail in late June 2012. Malley the reconstructed bomb and that used to protect the gas line from a Rona was arrested on May 25, 2012. BY MURRAY CRAWFORD ADVOCATE STAFF
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with two end caps as items he extracted from the ground at Poelzer’s residence and maintained continuity of as evidence for the trial. Court heard Poelzer say she has a son who police also interviewed. That son has a reloader. The issue of a reloader came up earlier in the trial because it is a tool needed to reload shotgun shells. Malley said he purchased the gunpowder found by RCMP at his residence to reload shotgun shells. Police did not find a reloader or any other tool needed to reload shotgun shells. Retired RCMP member Alan Voth was tendered as a defence expert witness in the field of forensic gunshot residue and firearms. He testified that gunpowder leaves some residue, sometimes in the form of flakes or particles, in spent shotgun shells.
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hardware store close to Poelzer’s home in July 2011. The concrete pour did not occur until October 2013. Poelzer testified that she got in touch with ATCO about protecting the gas line prior to a concrete pour. She said they told her to protect the line from the concrete by putting a sleeve around it, but did not clarify what should be used to protect the line. Prior testimony from ATCO employees and contractors indicated their standard practice was to use PVC piping. As well, photos of houses built by Kodiak Homes, a home-building company Malley was a part-owner of, showed the use of plastic used to encase the gas line. Retired Edmonton Police Service officer Don Christal, who now works as a private investigator, was hired by the defence. He took a video of the extraction of a piece of concrete around the gas line from the back of Poelzer’s residence on May 13, 2014. In court, he identified a steel nipple