Halifax murder trial delayed indefinitely

A high-profile Halifax-area murder trial will not proceed as scheduled after lawyers for Adam Drake told a justice of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court on Thursday that they cannot be ready in time.

Drake, 33, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of battle-rapper Pat Stay in September 2022. Stay was stabbed outside a downtown Halifax bar and died later in hospital. Drake was arrested a few days later.

His jury trial had been slated to begin on Monday. But on Sept. 6, the Nova Scotia government announced Ian Hutchison, one-half of Drake's defence team, had been appointed to the bench as one of two men named to the provincial court by Justice Minister Barbara Adams.

Hutchison has been replaced by another Halifax-area defence lawyer, Jennifer MacDonald, who's working with Toronto lawyer Michael Lacy.

Lacy told Justice Scott Norton on Thursday that, in fairness to Drake, they cannot rush preparations for his trial. The five-week block that had been set aside for this hearing has now been abandoned.

"This was just an unforeseen circumstance that happens from time to time and I think you can appreciate what we said on the record, we're all going to do our best to move it along in a timely fashion, as always," Crown prosecutor Tanya Carter said outside court Thursday.

The challenge will be finding time when the two Crown attorneys, two defence lawyers and Norton can set aside five weeks.

In preliminary discussions, they looked at dates in January, May and September of next year. The last dates, a year from now, would also be three years after Stay was killed. That possibility provoked groans and muttering from family and friends of Stay who packed the courtroom.

The lawyers will now meet virtually with the judge next week to see which dates work best.