Murder trial set to begin next week
The trial of a Kamloops man accused of murdering his father inside a Westsyde home last year is slated to get underway next week in B.C. Supreme Court.
Joshua Isaac Steel is slated to stand trial beginning on Monday, Nov. 5.
The 19-year-old was arrested after his father, 63-year-old Phil Steel, was found dead inside the family’s Collingwood Drive home on Sept. 12, 2011.
Josh Steel, who has no prior criminal record, was charged with second-degree murder a short time later.
During a court appearance in October 2011, defence lawyer Don Campbell mentioned the possibility of a not criminally responsible by way of a mental disorder (NCRMD) defence.
The judge presiding over Steel’s trial could order the accused undergo an NCRMD psychiatric assessment.
If a doctor were to then find Steel NCRMD, the judge would have to accept the finding in order for the file to be turned over to the B.C. Review Board.
In that case, Steel would not spend time in prison.
He would instead be held in the custody of the province at a psychiatric hospital in the Lower Mainland until doctors deemed him fit for release.
No details of the circumstances surrounding the death of Phil Steel have been made public, but neighbours have told KTW the suspect had been acting erratically and had been subdued by police in the days leading up to his father’s death.
The trial is scheduled to last three days.
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