Dozens rally for Samuel Bird as Bryan Farrell court matter put over until November

Dozens rallied outside the Edmonton Law Courts Monday, calling for justice for Samuel Bird. CTV News Edmonton's Amanda Anderson reports.

Dozens rallied outside the law courts in Edmonton on Monday demanding justice for Samuel Bird.

His accused killer was scheduled for a bail hearing that didn’t happen.

A lawyer appeared briefly on behalf of 38-year-old Bryan Farrell and the case was adjourned to another date.

Fifteen charges, including second-degree murder and indignity to a body, were laid against Farrell last week after Samuel’s remains were located west of Edmonton.

Police believe the 14-year-old was killed on June 1, the last day he was seen alive.

“I just wanted to see his face. See him, but he didn’t come on the screen,” Calvin Bird, Samuel’s grandfather, told CTV News Edmonton.

“He’s an adult, 38 years old, and my grandson’s 14 years old, only 100 pounds. I just wanted to see his face, but I didn’t see it today.”

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Lawyer Graham Rapson, who is not involved in Farrell’s case, says the provincial court, where the hearing was assigned, doesn’t have jurisdiction to decide Farrell’s bail.

“Only superior courts can deal with bail in relation to charges that are listed under section 469 of the criminal code. Typically, the only charge that really is relevant to is murder,” Rapson said.

“The other ones are extremely obscure charges like treason, piracy, things of that nature. You never really see those come up in the court.”

Rapson says murder charges typically go to provincial court for scheduling purposes and for docket updates so the court gets periodic updates about when disclosure is received or when a bail hearing is scheduled.

Farrell’s matter was put over until Nov. 10.

Rapson said it’s too early to know if a bail decision will come that day.

“For any homicide charge, there are many factors that are going into an accused decision about when to bring a bail application,” he said, including what sort of release plan the accused has available to them, and the timing of lawyers receiving disclosure.

“It could be a very long time before bail is heard, or they could push for something, I’d say quickly would be within a couple of weeks.”

Calvin says he’s grateful for the people who came out to show support for Samuel on Monday, and he expects the support will continue through the court process.

“I’m very grateful for everyone here. I don’t know half of them,” he said.

“I do expect crowds like this to show up. There’s a lot of people behind our family. He had a lot of friends.”

“I’m really grateful that they are here to support the family for justice for Samuel.”

With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Amanda Anderson