Trial for youth charged with 2018 manslaughter delayed

Photo: Contributed

Esa Carriere

A young person charged with the killing of a 23-year-old man on Canada Day 2018 in downtown Kelowna won't face trial until September, after their trial was recently delayed.

The young person, who was 17 at the time of the killing and can't be identified under the Youth Justice Act, was one of four people charged with manslaughter following the stabbing death of Esa Carriere on the evening of July 1, 2018, near Kelowna's Queensway bus loop.

The person's manslaughter trial was originally scheduled to begin March 29, but that has now been adjourned to Sept. 9. BC Prosecution Service spokesperson Dan McLaughlin said the delay was due to the Crown prosecutor on the case being appointed as a judge.

Another person who was 17 at the time pleaded guilty to assault last November, and the Crown dropped the manslaughter charge as a result. That teenage girl was handed a 15-month Intensive Support and Supervision order that includes a number of conditions.

Meanwhile, 28-year-old Nathan Truant and 22-year-old Noah Vaten began their manslaughter trial in February. That trial went longer than scheduled, and it's currently set to resume in July.

The Crown alleges Vaten, Truant and the two 17 year olds chased Carriere and attacked him when he fell to the ground, after an altercation near the Kasugai Gardens entrance during the Canada Day fireworks celebration.

During opening submissions, Crown prosecutor Martin Nadon said Vaten delivered a fatal stab to Carriere's heart during the attack.

Vaten spent the night in the Kelowna “drunk tank” after Carriere had been killed, and a cellmate of Vaten's testified that Vaten had told him how he had stabbed a man just hours earlier.

When he was arrested for the killing close to seven months later, Vaten told police he had no recollection of the night Carriere was killed, but he later confessed to the stabbing.

Vaten and Traunt's trial is set to resume on July 26. Both men are out of custody on bail.