Admitted killer has date in Kamloops court next week
The son of a former Edmonton police chief who last summer admitted in a Kamloops courtroom to murdering his girlfriend, attacking an undercover police officer and then stabbing his cellmate in the eye is scheduled to appear in B.C. Supreme Court next week.
It is not likely Mark Lindsay will appear in person because he is in the middle of a preliminary inquiry in Alberta facing a second-degree murder charge.
Lawyers, however, are expected to meet on Monday, Jan. 21, to set a date for questioning of a psychiatrist who performed an in-depth assessment on the 25-year-old last year.
In August, Lindsay pleaded not guilty, but admitted to aggravated assault charges stemming from two separate incidents in 2011.
On Sept. 21, 2011, Lindsay was the target of an undercover RCMP Mr. Big investigation when he attacked the officer attempting to befriend him.
That assault took place in Barriere as the two men drove from Edmonton to Kamloops as part of a staged undercover scenario in which they were dropping off ATVs in the Tournament Capital.
The next month, while in custody at Kamloops Regional Correctional Centre, Lindsay stabbed his cellmate, Michel Fougere, twice in the eye during a game of Scrabble.
He admitted both assaults at trial in Kamloops, but claimed to have been acting in self-defence. Both victims, Lindsay said, were affiliated with a group of "serial killers" who wanted him dead.
Court heard the Mr. Big sting was in response to the disappearance of Dana Turner, Lindsay's 31-year-old girlfriend.
The mother of three vanished from her Edmonton-area home on Aug. 14, 2011 — two days after Lindsay was released from jail following a 50-day sentence stemming from an incident in which he stabbed Turner in the head.
Turner's body was found in a farmer's field in central Alberta two months later, and he was subsequently charged with murder.
At the conclusion of his Kamloops trials, B.C. Supreme Court Justice Dev Dley ordered Lindsay to undergo a psychiatric evaluation to help determine whether he might be found not criminally responsible by way of a mental disorder (NCRMD) for the B.C. charges.
The evaluation was completed last fall, but its results have not yet been made public. However, both Crown and defence lawyers have hinted in court that the psychiatrist believes Lindsay should be found NCRMD — a decision that will ultimately be up to Dley.
Crown prosecutor Will Burrows told KTW last month he would like to question the psychiatrist in court. He said recent delays in setting a date are due to scheduling conflicts.
That hearing is expected to take place some time in early February.
Lindsay's preliminary inquiry in Red Deer provincial court began earlier this month and is slated to wrap up in February.
His father, former Edmonton police chief John Lindsay, was one of the witnesses called by the Crown on the first day of the Red Deer hearings.
All evidence given at a preliminary inquiry is bound by a mandatory publication ban.
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