Tara Kearsey
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (May 27/02) - One of two suspects in the murder of Yves Labelle of Hay River will stand trial on a manslaughter charge.

Craig Stromberg, 36, was released on $5,000 bail on March 1. Stromberg and Ivan Bruha, 50, were charged with second degree murder after the beating death of Labelle on Jan. 17.

Stromberg's lawyer, Robert Gorin, appeared in Yellowknife territorial court May 20 to inform Justice Michel Bourassa that his client wished to waive a preliminary inquiry on the second-degree murder charge and would stand trial on a lesser offence of manslaughter.

Stromberg and Bruha were scheduled for a preliminary inquiry in territorial court in Hay River next week.

Bruha will still appear for the inquiry, but Stromberg will await his trial date in NWT Supreme Court, where he will be tried by a judge and jury under section 234 of the Criminal Code.

The 50-year-old Labelle was found dead in a room at the Cedar Rest Motel in Hay River.

It was the town's first murder in five years.