Man accused of fatal 2018 stabbing skipped trial Wednesday

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Esa Carriere was fatally stabbed on the evening of July 1, 2018 in downtown Kelowna.

The trial for two of the men accused of killing a young man in downtown Kelowna during the 2018 Canada Day celebrations was delayed Wednesday, after one of the accused failed to show up in court.

Nathan Truant and Noah Vaten were both charged with manslaughter close to seven months after 23-year-old Esa Carriere was killed near the Queensway bus loop on the evening of July 1, 2018.

Truant and Vaten’s trial began in February of this year, but it went longer than its scheduled time. After a four-month break, due in part to Crown prosecutor Martin Nadon being appointed as a judge, it restarted on Monday.

While the trial was expected to come to a close by the end of this week, the conclusion of the trial may be pushed back once more, after Truant failed to appear in court Wednesday morning. Both men have been out of custody on bail throughout the trial.

After delaying the trial for an hour Wednesday morning, Justice Alison Beames issued a warrant for Truant’s arrest.

Truant’s lawyer Grant Gray was able to make contact with his client just after the 10 a.m. scheduled start time.

“There's no good explanation for it other than he slept in,” Gray told the court. “I've spoken with him directly and chastised him rather severely.”

Justice Beames noted that Truant had reliably shown up to court throughout the many weeks of trial, and Wednesday’s absence was uncharacteristic of him.

While Truant told his lawyer that he would get to court within an hour, as of noon, he had not shown up and the trial was delayed to Thursday morning. Vaten meanwhile was present in court Wednesday.

Gray conceded to Justice Beames that he was “disturbed” by his client's absence, as the case is a serious matter.

Last spring, the court heard how a group of people attacked Carriere on the night of his death, swarming him and kicking him after he fell to the ground.

At some point in the attack, the Crown says Vaten delivered a fatal stab wound to Carriere’s chest.

When Vaten was arrested several months later, he told police he had blacked out from drinking and using cocaine on the night in question, but he later confessed to police that he had killed Carriere.

Vaten’s lawyer Glenn Verdumen is challenging the admissibility of the confession.

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.

Two others were charged in Carriere’s death, but since they were 17 at the time of the killing, their identities are protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. One of the young people pleaded guilty to assault last year, while the other is scheduled to face trial on the manslaughter charge in September.