Trial witness missing
Man gave Mounties fictitious address in B.C.
John McFadden
Northern News Services
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A man, wanted on weapons and drug trafficking charges, and also considered a crucial witness by the Crown in a burglary trial, is nowhere to be found.
Lazare Sampson is charged along with Kristopher Hrynczuk in a break, enter and theft at the Dancing Moose Cafe on Jan. 15. Sampson was to have been in territorial court yesterday on his own charges but failed to appear.
A warrant has now been issued for his arrest. Sampson was also supposed to have been in court last Friday for the start of Hrynczuk's trial but prosecutor Jacqueline Porter told the court that RCMP can't find him.
She explained to Judge Garth Malakoe that when Sampson was granted bail in Yellowknife earlier this year, he gave an address in the village of Chase, in B.C.'s interior, as the one where he would be staying.
"But when the RCMP went to the home to serve a subpoena on Sampson, officers realized the address did not exist," Porter told the court. She also pointed out there were delays in getting the subpoena from Yellowknife to Chase. It left the city on May 4 and didn't arrive in Chase until May 11, seven days later, Porter said.
"That's when they discovered there was no such address," Porter said. "RCMP contacted his family and police on a nearby reserve to try to find him but were unsuccessful."
Porter asked Malakoe for an adjournment in the trial. The judge initially wanted it to go ahead this week but Porter said that would be virtually impossible, particularly if Sampson hadn't been located and brought to Yellowknife. Malakoe agreed and set the trial date for July 17.
"The Crown has significant concerns that the witness can be arrested and brought here in time for trial," Malakoe said in granting the adjournment.
Hrynczuk's lawyer Alanhea Vogt argued against the adjournment, saying her client had already spent 119 days in pre-trial custody at North Slave Correctional Centre. She told Malakoe that the Crown and the RCMP had been given ample time to locate Sampson.
Although Hrynczuk remains in custody, he was allowed to leave the prisoner's box to sit beside his lawyer for the hearing. He has pleaded guilty to three charges, including a break and enter at the Yellowknife Inn and possession of stolen property - a television.
Hrynczuk and Sampson are both charged in the burglary at the cafe.
An RCMP news release at the time stated several items were stolen, including four large carvings and about 24 bottles of wine.
It is not clear whether any of the stolen items have been recovered.
