Charges of possessing stolen property under $5,000 and fraud under $5,000 were stayed July 28 in Provincial Court in Prince George.
The case of Cody Kenneth Matthew Willier, born in 1995, had dragged on for nearly five years.
Crown prosecutor Lisa Sukkau did not provide the reason for the stay to Judge Martin Nadon. Generally, the Crown proceeds with cases only if there is a substantial likelihood of conviction and, if so, whether public interest requires prosecution.
The two charges against Willier stemmed from an incident on Sept. 25, 2020 in Prince George. In May 2021, a warrant was sought for Willier’s arrest and he was charged in November 2021 with failing to appear, for which he was convicted in January of this year.
In July 2024, another charge, for breach of release order.
A 2016 Supreme Court of Canada ruling on the constitutional right to a timely trial set 18 months, from charge to end of trial, as the presumptive ceiling for a case in Provincial Court.
