By the time Michael Ball’s second murder trial begins, it will have been nearly five years since Erin Howlett’s remains were found.
Ball made a brief court appearance Friday morning in Kitchener, where dates were set for pretrial arguments and the trial itself.
The pretrial will take part in two stages, starting this October and continuing in February 2018.
The trial itself is scheduled to start April 3, 2018. Twelve weeks have been set aside for the trial.
Ball has said that he will look to have the trial moved out of Waterloo Region. That matter has yet to be decided.
Howlett’s dismembered remains were found in a duffel bag in the Grand River in June 2013.
Ball is charged with first-degree murder in connection with her death. His first trial, which took place in 2015 and 2016, ended in a mistrial when jurors were unable to agree on a verdict for that offence.
Jurors did convict Ball of committing an indignity to a body. For that offence, he was sentenced to time already served plus one day.
The second trial was delayed in part because of Ball’s attempts to secure public funding for his legal defence.
That funding was granted earlier this year, on the condition that Ball repay the money if he ever finds himself in a financial position where he can afford to repay it.
The Crown has argued that Ball killed Howlett by choking her to death in a jealous rage. Ball admits to being angry with Howlett, but says he did not kill her.
With reporting by Abigail Bimman
