'Legal issue' delays Dieppe double murder case
A Dieppe double murder case has been delayed several weeks over what a prosecutor described Friday as a "legal issue."
"I think it's something that hopefully the parties can resolve on their own without the court's intervention, but it's a preliminary legal issue that's going to have to be determined before further steps are taken on this file," Crown prosecutor James McConnell told Judge Anne Richard.
The comments were made as Janson Bryan Baker, 27, appeared in Moncton provincial court by phone Friday morning.
Baker is charged with two counts of first-degree murder. It's alleged he killed 78-year-old Bernard Saulnier and 74-year-old Rose-Marie Saulnier on Sept. 7, 2019.
The bodies of Bernard Saulnier, 78, and his wife, Rose-Marie Saulnier, 74, were discovered in their Dieppe bungalow on Sept. 7, 2019. (Fair Haven Funeral Home)
Baker had applied to get a lawyer through legal aid. Nathan Gorham was named as his lawyer.
However, Gorham's associate Adrian Forsythe appeared Friday and told Richard the firm isn't able to officially represent Baker at this point. That's when McConnell mentioned the legal issue and requested a delay to sort it out.
The judge agreed, setting Baker's next appearance on the charges for Feb. 2.
The nature of the issue wasn't mentioned in court.
Last week, the Crown raised the possibility of a conflict of interest if Gorham represents Baker.
Gorham previously represented Jesse Todd Logue who in 2021 was sentenced to 8.5 years in prison on drug and weapons charges.
RCMP Insp. Chantal Farrah told reporters in September that Baker was linked to people investigated as part of Operation J-Trilogy, which targeted a drug trafficking network led by Logue.
The J-Trilogy investigation led to a series of raids at locations in Moncton and other parts of the province Aug. 28, 2019, days before the Saulniers were killed.
This duplex on Dominion Street was one of the Moncton residences raided by Codiac Regional RCMP in 2019. (Shane Magee/CBC)
One of the locations raided was a Dominion Street home owned by the couple's son, Sylvio Saulnier. He later faced drug charges but died before going on trial.
Baker was charged with killing them on the fourth anniversary of their deaths.
Baker is set to stand trial starting Monday in a separate case alleging he attempted to murder teacher Christopher Leger with a sawed-off 12-gauge shotgun on Jan. 5, 2021, outside Riverview High School.
The shooting led to the RCMP's first use in New Brunswick of the emergency alert system.
