A man charged with second-degree murder in a fatal Vancouver stabbing is heading for a B.C. Supreme Court trial.
That was Vancouver Provincial Court Judge Deanne Gaffar's decision in Hevert Solis Moreno's case July 2 after a brief preliminary inquiry that began June 30.
The case moved to a preliminary inquiry after a not guilty plea was entered.
Police said Ricky Martinez was fatally stabbed at the intersection of Carrall and East Hastings streets in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside in the early morning of Sept. 28, 2023.
Martinez was taken to hospital where he later died.
The Vancouver Police Department's investigation into the death took 11 months.
The accused remains in custody.
Crown prosecutor Jacinta Lawton made her case before Gaffar. Defence lawyer Neil Wiberg did not call any evidence.
Gaffar said there was sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.
"Mr. Solis Moreno, you are committed for trial," the judge said.
Preliminary hearings are held to determine if sufficient evidence exists to proceed to trial. A publication ban covers the contents of such hearings.
That ban section of the Criminal Code of Canada was used in the court docket as justification for removing the accused’s name, replacing it with the words, “BAN IMPOSED.”
No evidence from any hearing appears on a court docket or in the Court Services Online database but it is regularly removed or hidden from public view.
Solis Moreno’s name was released publicly Oct. 30, 2024 when he was arrested and charged.
