The start of a murder trial moved to Nanaimo from Powell River was delayed Monday because of confusion over computer disks.
Richard William Robert Peers, 25, of Sechelt and Mark Anthony Harding, 22, of Powell River are charged with second-degree murder in the home invasion death of 51-year-old James Edward Moss in Powell River in January 2005. Harding and Peers are being tried by judge alone after the Crown consented to a trial without a jury.
Crown prosecutors Ian Tully-Bar and Scott Van Alstine were set to call an RCMP forensic investigator as the first witness in the trial, but the lawyer for Peers, Darcy Lawrence of Sechelt, raised a problem over evidence disclosed on a computer disk.
Lawrence told Justice Geoff Barrow that in discussions last week with Harding's lawyers, he realized that his disk containing disclosed evidence was not the same. Harding's lawyers, he learned, had an updated and differently organized disk containing the evidence.
While it was not clear to Lawrence why the second disk was not provided to him, Tully-Bar said the "horrible error" lies with the Crown office and he was investigating how it happened.
Tully-Bar provided the Crown's disk to Lawrence with an undertaking he not disclose the protected identity of certain witnesses.
Barrow agreed to adjourn the case for a day to allow Lawrence more time to examine the second disk, which Tully-Bar said was a "re-collation" of information on the first disk.
Harding and Peers were arrested in February and both remain in custody. The trial was moved to Nanaimo after a court application in Powell River by lawyers for Harding and Peers.
