In Calgary courts: Preliminary inquiry begins for pair charged with murdering Rocky View County worker believed to have offered assistance
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The hearing to determine if two men will stand trial for the murder of a Rocky View County employee believed to have stopped to offer help got underway Monday.
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Elijah Blake Strawberry and Arthur Wayne Penner are charged with second-degree murder in connection with the shooting death last Aug. 6 of Colin John Hough.
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They're also charged with attempted murder in the shooting of Matthew Andres in the same incident.
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Before Crown prosecutors Photini Papadatou and Ryan Ziegler called the first of their witnesses, defence lawyers Rebecca Snukal (For Strawberry) and Alexandra Seaman (for Penner) were granted a publication ban on the evidence in the case by Justice Karim Jivraj.
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At Papadatou's request, the Calgary Court of Justice also informed several members of the deceased's family viewing proceedings via Webex that the publication ban also prohibited them from publicly disseminating information about the evidence.
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Hough was shot on a rural road near Conrich, east of Calgary, when it's believed he pulled over to offer assistance in connection with a burning truck.
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Andres, who was working for FortisAlberta Inc., survived being shot.
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Papadatou and Ziegler are expected to call up to 13 witnesses over the course of the preliminary inquiry, which is scheduled to last four days.
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Penner, 36, was arrested by the RCMP's major crimes unit with the assistance of Edmonton police six days after the fatal shooting of Hough.
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He was initially charged with first-degree murder, but that allegation was later downgraded by the prosecution.
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Strawberry, 28, was picked up more than a month after Hough's killing. Mounties arrested him Sept. 13, at a residence on O'Chiese First Nation near Rocky Mountain House in Central Alberta.
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