A trial for a Meadow Lake man facing firearms related offences was rescheduled.
The case against Lennex Merasty-Morin, 31, was brought before Meadow Lake Provincial Court Sept. 14. A trial was previously scheduled for Aug. 11 but didn’t proceed. The defence for Merasty-Morin requested that the matter be adjourned until Sept. 14 to set a new trial date. The court heard that defence had temporarily lost contact with Merasty-Morin and had advised both the court and the Crown ahead of the Aug. 11 scheduled trial date so the Crown could cancel the appearance of witnesses. Since then the defence has been back in contact with Merasty-Morin so the matter was adjourned for case management.
Merasty-Morin has pleaded not guilty to 13 firearms-related charges. He was arrested after an incident in Meadow Lake on Nov. 23, 2019, where two men were allegedly shot while driving near the intersection of 7th Avenue and 5th Street West.
RCMP say the 32-year-old driver of the vehicle was shot in the back and a 50-year-old passenger was also injured but didn’t specify the nature of the injuries.
Police located the white four-door Chevrolet suspected of being connected to the shooting and tried to stop the vehicle but the driver sped away. They pursued the car until it crashed into a bush on Range Road 610. RCMP arrested Richard Angus, 38, Cory Bouvier, 30, Joshua Matheson, 26, and Charley Seright, 25, and issued an arrest warrant for Merasty-Morin.
The four who were arrested at the scene were all charged with flight from police and dangerous operation of a vehicle. The charges against Richard Angus were withdrawn. The charges against Joshua Matheson were stayed in Meadow Lake Provincial Court. The charges against Seright didn’t go to court. The charges of flight from police in that incident were stayed against Bouvier in April. Bouvier, however, has a trial on weapons and robbery charges stemming from a separate incident in April 2020, which is re-scheduled to Oct. 15 in Meadow Lake Provincial Court.
On charges from the alleged shooting in November 2019, Merasty-Morin was arrested in December 2019 after a foot chase where police deployed a Conducted Energy Weapon (Taser) during the arrest. He was released on bail in April 2020 and is back in custody.
Merasty-Morin’s trial has been rescheduled in Meadow Lake Provincial Court to Feb. 18 and 19, 2021, to be tried by Provincial Court Judge alone.
