Next appearance for accused murderer Steven Jones pushed to January

The next court appearance for the man accused of killing 22-year-old Taylor Marshall and the attempted murder of a man on Sault Ste. Marie's boardwalk has been pushed to the new year.

Steven Jones did not appear in video remand court on Thursday, but was represented in the Ontario Court of Justice by Rebecca Silver, lawyer for Toronto-based Furgiuele Law. That firm was retained to represent Jones in October.

Silver told justice of the peace Kathleen Bryant on Thursday that defence sent another request for additional information from the office of the Crown Attorney. That follows 

“The request outlines quite a substantial amount of missing disclosure,” said Silver in court.

Silver asked Bryant for an adjournment until Jan. 11 to wait for that additional disclosure to come from the Crown and be reviewed.

Andrew Allen for the Crown told Bryant a number of disclosure items have already been provided to the defence and urged that the mater move forward to a Crown pretrial, the next step before a trial can begin.

“On one of the files, 91 separate items have been disclosed and on the other file 69 separate items have been disclosed,” said Allen. “In the Crown’s view, these are the kinds of matters where there is obviously going to be ongoing discussion between the Crown and defence.”

The matter is still moving through the Ontario Court of Justice, even though the murder charge and all matters related to it must be considered in Superior Court. Because murder is listed under Sec. 469 of the Criminal Code, Allen noted the matter will eventually have to be moved to Superior Court for a trial date to be set.

In granting the next court date on Jan. 11, Bryant noted that adjournment will hopeful allow for some clarity in how the matter will proceed.

“I really don’t know what we are doing with 469 matters because you are right, they are in the domain of the Superior Court," said Bryant. “I just want to make sure we are not upsetting the apple cart by pushing things too far, given the complexity of this particular matter."

At Jones’s last appearance, Bryant noted under the newly enacted rules put in place in response to the Jordan Framework, the court date for the matter will have to be scheduled to begin arguments no later than six months after the Sept. 7 arrest, meaning it has to be scheduled by March 7, 2024.

Those rules were put in place in response to the R. v Jordan case that eventually went to the Supreme Court of Canada. The high court's decision in that case ensures trials are to dealt with in a more timely manner.