The Sechelt courtroom was virtually empty last week during the preliminary hearing for Raymond Irwin, a 33-year-old Langdale man charged with the second-degree murder of his mother.
Mary Richards, Irwin's 53-year-old mother, was visiting him from Kelowna when she died some time around Feb. 5. Police found her body on a Roberts Creek logging road early on the morning of Feb. 7.
At the time, police said Irwin's wife called from Pennsylvania Feb. 6 with concerns about her mother-in-law's safety. Police arrested Irwin at his Smith Road home that night after finding "suspicious" circumstances there. After questioning Irwin, they located Richards' body the next morning.
Irwin, who has been in custody at the Forensic Psychiatric Institute in Port Coquitlam since shortly after his arrest in February, sat impassively in the prisoner's box during the first two days of the hearing, Sept. 7 and 8. He showed no signs of emotion while civilian and police witnesses testified about the events of early February.
That stony demeanour was very different from Irwin's first appearance in court Feb. 9. At that time, Irwin seemed distraught and irrational, calling himself "King Richard" and talking wildly about vampirism, the Book of Revelations and nuclear holocaust.
No friends or relatives of Irwin or his mother attended the beginning of the hearing, which is scheduled to last three weeks. In total, 25 Crown witnesses will testify.
To ensure a fair trial, the evidence presented at the hearing cannot be published.
