WARNING: This story contains graphic details
One Langley homicide trial is set to wrap up with a judge’s ruling, while another is set to begin in the same week at the end of May.
Jason Robert William Griffiths went on trial March 25 for second degree murder in the 2022 death of Nicholas Ball. After a multi-week trial in New Westminster Supreme Court, he’s scheduled to return on Wednesday, May 29 for the judge’s decision.
The court heard witness testimony on the first day of the trial that Griffiths had been living on a vacant lot about 100 yards of 208th Street on the day of the killing.
Shane Stanway said that he and Ball had been doing drugs before they visited Griffiths camp site. The men built a fire, but when it got dark, Griffiths demanded they leave.
Ball did not want to go, Stanway testified, and the two men exchanged words before Griffiths came out of his tent with a crossbow and shot Ball.
Griffiths chased Ball from the campsite, and returned later, saying the other man was dead. Griffiths would call the police the next day.
If found guilty of second degree murder, Griffiths would face life in prison, with the length of time until he is eligible for parole to be determined by the judge.
READ MORE: Crossbow killed Langley man, trial told
Another long-running legal case will go to trial on Monday, May 27, also in New Westminster.
Obnes Regis is facing a charge of manslaughter and interfering with human remains, in the death of his wife, Naomi Onotera.
Onotera disappeared from the family’s Langley home in late August, 2021, and Regis was arrested and charged that December.
Although the trial itself has not yet begun, Justice Martha Devlin has already presided over several weeks-long voir dire hearings, to determine whether key pieces of evidence would be allowed into the proceedings.
Earlier this year, she ruled that a search of the home Regis and Onotera shared, during which investigators first located human remains, was lawful.
In March, she considered further evidence, including an admission Regis allegedly made to undercover officers that he had disposed of “finger-sized pieces” of Onotera’s bones in the Fraser River near Fort Langley.
He also allegedly turned over a handsaw and a knife to the undercover officers. When tested, they found the presence of Onotera’s DNA.
Persons charged with a criminal offence are considered not guilty until the charges are proven in court.
READ MORE: Gruesome evidence introduced in Langley manslaughter hearing