ST. JOHN'S, N.L. — A socially-distant arraignment day happened in Newfoundland and Labrador Supreme Court in St. John’s Tuesday morning, with the judge and clerk in the courtroom and lawyers on the phone looking to reschedule trials that had been postponed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The court looked to dates as far ahead as June 2021 as it rescheduled half a dozen trials needing multiple consecutive days before a judge.
Among them was the trial of Travis Wade, accused of robbing the TD Bank on Kelsey Drive in November 2018 with an accomplice.
Wade and his co-accused are said to have held up the bank with a knife and a shotgun, demanding cash from exmployees, forcibly confining a person, assaulting two people and firing a shot into the ceiling.
Wade was arrested after the two robbery suspects crashed their pickup on nearby O'Leary Avenue while trying to make their getaway on slippery, snow-covered roads. Co-accused Adam Hayden — who pleaded guilty to the crimes and is serving jail time for them — was apprehended after attempting to carjack a couple on Kenmount Road.
Wade’s 10-day trial had been scheduled to take place in May and has been rescheduled for Feb. 1, 2021.
Also rescheduled is one of a number of matters for Dustin Etheridge, who is facing a charges alongside three other men related to drug trafficking and murder conspiracy. While some of his matters are set to be heard in court this week, he will go to trial on others in May 2021.
Brandon Glasco, who was convicted last month in connection with the same murder conspiracy allegation, had been scheduled to go to trial on trafficking charges. His lawyer indicated Tuesday he was no longer seeking a trial date, since he intends to change his plea to guilty. A date will be set later this week for a sentencing hearing.
