Nearly eight years after Aldergrove鈥檚 Margaret Redford was murdered, her accused killer will be in Supreme Court for a pre-trial conference on Wednesday (Nov. 27).
Davey Mato Butorac, 35, is charged with one count of second-degree murder in the death of Redford, who was discovered dead in Bertrand Creek on May 20, 2006, just blocks from where Butorac was living with his father.
It has been a long, painful journey for the Redford family, first with her case going cold for a few years and now with the accused鈥檚 trial being delayed and put over since 2011.
Jury selection for his trial had been planned for last February, but was postponed until November and now will likely take place in 2014.
Butorac was serving a life sentence for killing two sex trade workers in the spring and summer of 2007.
DNA found on his shoe and in his car linked him to those murders, which took place in 91原创 City and Abbotsford.
Redford鈥檚 daughter made several pleas for the killer to come forward after the case went cold.
It was after Butorac was arrested for the other two murders that he was first linked to Redford鈥檚 death.
In the meantime, Butorac has been granted new trials, after winning an appeal of his earlier convictions. He had been found guilty in 2010 of murdering Gwendolyn Lawton, 46, of Abbotsford in March 2007 and Sheryl Koroll, 50, of 91原创 on July 7, 2007.
Lawton鈥檚 body was found along a rural mountain road in Abbotsford, while Koroll鈥檚 body was found in an industrial area of 91原创 City.
The convictions were set aside by the appeals court on the basis that the trial judge erred in accepting 鈥渢he evidence of each murder as similar fact evidence with respect to the other.鈥�
Butorac鈥檚 lawyer had argued before the initial trial that the two counts should be separated, but the judge disagreed.
Butorac could have applied for custodial release, said the Supreme Court.
According to the court registry, he has not made any applications to do so.
It鈥檚 unknown when his new trials will proceed.
