Maugerville murder trial dates set
Jodie Carrie Clark, 31, of Minto, accused of killing common-law partner October 2022
A Minto woman accused of second-degree murder in the death of the man she was living with a year ago will stand trial before a jury in a year’s time.
Jodie Carrie Clark, 31, appeared Monday for the Court of King’s Bench motions day at the Burton Courthouse by telephone from the New Brunswick Women’s Centre in Miramichi, where she’s being held in custody.
She faces an Oct. 9, 2022, count of second-degree murder for Alexander “Andy” Ladds’s death.
The case was previously scheduled to go through a preliminary inquiry in provincial court in January. Such hearings are held in the lower level of court to test the Crown’s evidence and to determine if there’s sufficient cause to set cases over for trial at the Court of King’s Bench.
However, that preliminary inquiry didn’t happen, as the Crown filed a preferred indictment in the case, which allows the prosecution to skip that preliminary phase and proceed directly to trial.
That’s why Clark’s case was before King’s Bench Justice Thomas Christie on Monday, to schedule and confirm the dates for her jury trial.
The court set the trial for two weeks late next year: Nov. 26 to 29, and continuing Dec. 2 to 6.
Clark will remain in custody until that time.
The RCMP reported last year that police and paramedics were dispatched to a home on Highway 105 in Maugerville at about 7 p.m. on Oct. 9, 2022.
Ladds, who was seriously injured, was found inside his home and was rushed to hospital, a police news release said, and Ladds died as a result of his injuries the following day.
Clark was arrested and charged with second-degree murder and made her first appearance in court Oct. 11, 2022.
Don MacPherson can be contacted at ftonindependent@gmail.com.
Another year.....rot.