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Volume of evidence delays trial involving death of snowmobiler Prosecutors in the criminal negligence causing death case against Squamish filmmaker Jeremy Deichen, charged in connection with the death of 23-year-old Josh Chapman, asked for more time

Volume of evidence delays trial involving death of snowmobiler

Prosecutors in the criminal negligence causing death case against Squamish filmmaker Jeremy Deichen, charged in connection with the death of 23-year-old Josh Chapman, asked for more time last week to review the enormous case file.

The file is already up around 6,000 pages and is still not complete, prosecutor Walt Gill told the judge at a preliminary hearing on March 26.

Chapman died three weeks after sustaining severe burns in a snowmobile stunt last July 20.

Deichen, 30, of Loaded Gun Productions videotaped Chapman catwalking his sled through a stack of burning hay bales. He has turned over his tapes from that evening to the RCMP. Everyone at the party was also questioned.

 

Police nab robbery suspect

After almost three months of investigation, Ridge Meadows RCMP arrested a suspect in connection with a violent robbery at the Birks jewelry store in Whistler Village.

The incident happened on Jan. 6, at approximately 5:30 p.m. Three males entered the store and asked the clerk to see some of the rings. One of the males then allegedly punched the clerk in the face, grabbed several rings and fled the store.

Stephen Joseph McLellan of Ridge Meadows has been charged with robbery, and will make his first appearance in court on April 9.

Bar fight turns ugly as patron stabbed

A bar brawl that erupted in Garfinkel’s in the early morning of March 30 has led to the arrest of a Richmond male.

According to RCMP, a fight broke out between two groups at approximately 12:44 a.m. and during the scuffle a male pulled a knife.

Doormen broke up the fight, and one took the knife from the suspect before he fled the scene. He was later picked up in another local night club and arrested.

Alexandru Radacina, 23, has been charged with possession of a weapon and failing to comply with the terms of his parole.

No one witnessed the actual stabbing incident.

The victim, a 38-year-old from Lynn, Massachusetts, was taken to the Whistler Health Care Centre and released with minor injuries, including a three-inch laceration on his back. The victim said he did not know he had been stabbed until after the incident.

Illegal aliens sent home

Phil Collins was right – it is no fun, being an illegal alien.

On March 14, the Whistler RCMP assisted Immigration Canada in executing a warrant for two German citizens wanted in Germany for economic crimes of an unspecified nature.

Peter Hans Simon (also known as Peter Hans Weirach), age 42, and Sybille Anita Simon (a.k.a. Sybille Anita Weirach), 40, were apprehended in the 9400 block of Emerald Estates, and then released to Immigration Canada pending deportation. Both residents were residing in Whistler at the time of their arrest.

Police still searching for assault suspect

The Whistler RCMP are asking anyone with any information regarding a sexual assault that took place at approximately 3 a.m. on the morning of March 19 on the Valley Trail by the skateboard park to contact the detachment immediately.

The victim was a 21-year-old Whistler resident who was walking home from the village. The suspect approached her on foot along the trail and sexually assaulted her.

The suspect is described as a white male in his mid 20s, approximately five feet six or seven inches in height, and 140 pounds. He had short brown hair, shaved evenly at about a quarter inch.

He is clean cut, was wearing a dark jacket, and has a baby face.

The victim was emotionally traumatized, but did not sustain any life threatening physical injuries.

There has been no information to date, and the investigation is still ongoing.

If you have any information regarding this assault, or any information of other strange occurrences around the time at that location, contact the Whistler RCMP at 604-932-3044.