A three-week trial has been set for early next year for a man accused of shooting and fatally wounding a Blackfalds man in 2022 near Eckville.
Police have provided few details about the fatal shooting on June 20,2022. They said at the time officers responded to a shooting call about 4 a.m. on Range Road 34 just north of Highway 11, about three km south of Eckville.
When police got there they found a badly wounded Stephen Pond, 46. He was airlifted by STARS to an Edmonton hospital, but died on the way there.
The family says Pond was driving in his pickup on the rural road with his wife when a man appeared and fired several shots. Stephen was hit but his wife was uninjured.
At the time of his death, Stephen was raising three children, aged three, four and eight, with his wife. He also had a teenaged son and daughter from a previous family.
Dustin Charles Lemay-Storms, 35, was arrested nine months after the shooting and charged with second-degree murder. A judge-alone trial is scheduled for Jan. 6-24, 2025 in Red Deer Court of King’s Bench.
A multi-week trial was to begin on June 10, 2024. He then elected to move his case to a higher court, which meant rescheduling.