EDITOR'S NOTE: This article originally appeared on SooToday on Aug. 14. It is being republished here for readers who may have missed it.
One of the men convicted for his part in the gruesome death and dismemberment of Wesley Hallam in 2011 is facing more than a dozen criminal charges for allegedly assaulting an individual on two separate occasions.
Eric Mearow is back in custody as a result of the latest slew of charges laid against him by police earlier this month, according to court records obtained by SooToday.
The Batchawana Bay man is facing a dozen charges stemming from alleged incidents that happened July 4 in Sault Ste. Marie, including:
- four counts of assault
- one count of assault by choking
- one count of assault with a weapon (motorcycle helmet)
- five counts of uttering death threats
- one count of mischief
Mearow has also been charged with one count of assault and one count of assault with a weapon — in this case, a cell phone — in an alleged attack against the same victim that took place in Sault Ste. Marie in January of last year.
The news comes more than three months after Mearow walked out of the Sault Ste. Marie courthouse a free man after being charged with attempted murder.
Mearow and co-accused Travis Parsons faced attempted murder charges in a shooting incident that took place on May 29 of last year in the 200 block of Beverly Street.
A victim was seriously injured in that incident after being shot in a residence. A second person was assaulted and threatened at another home on the same west end street.
In addition to attempted murder, Mearow, 38, and Parsons, 41, were also charged with multiple firearm offences in connection with the incidents.
Mearow was arrested behind a Superior Street residence in the Batchawana Bay area on June 3 of last year, following a police manhunt that lasted for several days; multiple police units searched the same area for hours the night before, spurred on by a possible sighting.
This past May, a preliminary hearing for his alleged involvement in the Beverly Street shooting fell apart due to a key witness failing to show up for court.
The Crown didn’t have evidence to call on the six counts before the court for the preliminary hearing. There was some evidence, but the Crown didn’t have the necessary identification evidence — an essential element of the case — because that witness wasn’t at court to testify.
A judge “discharged” the two men on the six counts, which included the attempted murder and extortion using a firearm charges, because there was insufficient evidence to proceed to trial. A number of other charges were stayed.
Mearow, a notorious figure in Sault Ste. Marie, is well known to both police and the public.
Along with Dylan Jocko and Ronald Mitchell, Mearow pleaded guilty to manslaughter for his role in the high-profile killing and dismemberment of Wesley Hallam, who was stabbed during a drug-fuelled house party in January 2011.
The guilty pleas triggered widespread outrage in Sault Ste. Marie when they were announced in 2016 because it meant those responsible for Hallam’s death would only serve two more years in prison. Police had originally charged the trio with first-degree murder — which upon conviction carries an automatic sentence of life imprisonment — but the Crown ultimately settled on a plea deal because of concerns over “potential frailties” in the evidence.
Mearow’s next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 24.
- with files from Linda Richardson