Officer who dropped Justin Bone in Edmonton in violation of court order testifies in murder trial

The officer who brought accused Chinatown killer Justin Bone to Edmonton four years ago in violation of a court order took the stand on Friday.

The trial for the man accused of fatally beating two men in Edmonton’s Chinatown continued on Friday.

Justin Bone is charged with second-degree murder in the deaths of Ban Phuc Hoang, 61, and Hung Trang, 64, in Edmonton’s Chinatown in separate incidents on May 18, 2022.

Prior to the deaths of the two men, Bone had been released from custody on conditions to stay at the home of a court-approved surety in Alberta Beach.

He was also under court order not to be within the corporate limits of the City of Edmonton.

On Sunday, May 15, 2022, Parkland RCMP received a call from the surety, who said he wanted Bone out of his house because he was concerned about physical injury or property damage.

Bone was taken to Edmonton by a member of the Parkland RCMP and left to his own devices.

On Friday, two of the RCMP officers involved in the decision to transport Bone to Edmonton took the stand.

Const. Andrew Simmons, who at the time was three-and-a-half years out of RCMP Depot Division, was the first to testify.

Simmons said he had asked the surety if he would consider leaving the home so Bone could stay at the place he was ordered by the court to reside, but said the surety was concerned Bone would damage his property in his absence.

He then testified that the decision was made to take Bone to Edmonton despite the court order because he had no money for a place to stay and Edmonton was the closest municipality with shelters.

“The next closest city was too far to have been taken into consideration,” he said.

The defence asked if Simmons had considered arresting Bone for breach of recognizance instead of taking him to Edmonton, but Simmons said because it hadn’t been Bone’s decision to leave the surety’s home, he felt Bone wasn’t in breach.

Simmons said he originally planned to take Bone to downtown Edmonton where most of the shelters are, but as they arrived in the city, Bone asked to be dropped off in the area of 156 Street so that he could go to a community centre or library to use the Wi-Fi to contact an uncle about a place to stay.

He also described Bone’s behaviour during the ride as “sometimes OK, sometimes quite agitated,” testifying that Bone had yelled at him.

“He was a bit erratic with his behaviour,” he said.

He said he dropped Bone off in a parking lot at 156 Street and 101 Avenue shortly after 2 p.m.

He also testified that he had contacted the Edmonton Police Service prior to dropping Bone off to make it aware of the situation, and had left Bone with his business card with the file number for his interaction with him on it should he be stopped by EPS.

During cross examination the Crown asked if Simmons had made contact with Bone’s bail supervisor.

Simmons testified that bail supervisors don’t work on the weekend, but that he contacted the supervisor the next day.

The second witness to testify was Sgt. Laura McGilvray, who was the supervisor at the Parkland RCMP Detachment on the day Simmons dropped Bone in Edmonton.

McGilvray testified that she had been contacted by Simmons about how to proceed with removing Bone from the home given his court-ordered condition to remain there.

She told the court that she was not at the scene, but given the reports she had received, Bone was not committing any crimes and could not be arrested or detained by police.

She also said she would not have considered arresting him for breach of recognizance because it had not been his choice to leave the Alberta Beach residence.

McGilvray testified that the possibility of transporting Bone to Spruce Grove had been considered, but because there were no shelters available, he wouldn’t have been able to access the basic necessities, so the decision was made to take him to Edmonton.

The judge still has to determine if Friday’s testimony will be admissible.

The trial, which is by judge alone, will continue next week.