Accused murderer Tyler Noel seeks legal aid on jail escape charge
Noel, 19, of Moncton, due back in Saint John court on March 31
Accused murderer Tyler Noel is seeking legal aid on an unrelated charge of escaping lawful custody, a Saint John courtroom heard on Friday.
Noel, 19, of Moncton, is accused of escaping from the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre on Feb. 10, while awaiting his trial in October on charges of first-degree murder and arson in connection with the beating and stabbing death of Moncton teen Baylee Wylie in 2015.
Noel was scheduled to enter a plea Friday on the escape charge and choose whether he wants to be tried by a judge and jury or judge alone.
But the matter has been adjourned until March 31 at 9:30 a.m. so he can make arrangements to get legal aid.
An inmate escaped from the Saint John Regional Correctional Centre on Old Black River Road on the morning of Feb. 10, but was recaptured within minutes by police and jail staff, following a foot chase.
The escape from the jail, which houses up to 120 inmates of minimum to maximum security levels, was to be reviewed internally, but the results would not be made public, a Department of Public Safety spokesman had said.
The body of Wylie, 18, was found on Dec. 17, 2015 in a burned-out triplex on Sumac Street in Moncton. He had been bound in plastic wrap, severely beaten while tied to a chair and stabbed up to 200 times.
Shephard, 21, is also charged with first-degree murder and arson in connection with Wylie's death. Her preliminary inquiry is scheduled to start May 1.
Her next court appearance is on March 9 for sentencing after she pleaded guilty to an unrelated charge of assaulting a jail guard at the New Brunswick Women's Correctional Centre in Miramichi on July 28.
Devin Morningstar, 19, was sentenced in January to life in prison with no chance of parole for at least 25 years after a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder and arson in Wylie's death.
With files from Joseph Tunney