HALIFAX -- New dates have been selected for a preliminary inquiry in the case of a 23-year-old medical student charged with the murder of a fellow Dalhousie University student in Halifax.
William Sandeson appeared in a Halifax courtroom Wednesday via a video link from a Halifax-area jail. The young bearded man and former varsity track athlete said little as he sat at one end of a long table, dressed in a prison-issue orange, short-sleeved shirt.
At a previous focus hearing in November, six days spread over three months were selected for the preliminary hearing, which will determine if there is enough evidence to warrant a trial.
However, Crown prosecutor Susan MacKay and defence lawyer Eugene Tan agreed Wednesday to extend the hearing to eight days, all of them in February.
As with the previous focus hearing, all evidence presented in court is protected by a publication ban.
Sandeson is charged with first-degree murder in the death of 22-year-old Taylor Samson, a physics student at Dalhousie.
The charge was laid Aug. 20, four days after Samson was reported missing in Halifax. His body has yet to be found.
Police have said the two men knew one another.
A search warrant document describing some of the circumstances in the case was obtained by three media outlets before it was sealed by a judge.
They reported that the document alleges Samson was involved in a drug deal involving marijuana before his death.
Investigators subsequently searched two properties in Sandeson's hometown of Truro, N.S., saying they discovered several items of interest.
After the earlier focus hearing in November, Tan said outside the courtroom that the case against his client is largely circumstantial, which is why he was initially seeking to have up to 25 witnesses testify at the preliminary inquiry.
The Crown agreed Wednesday to take part in another focus hearing Jan. 18 to determine how many witnesses will appear.
