Top court rejects application to quash Virk killing appeal

VANCOUVER -- The Supreme Court of Canada has rejected an effort to quash the Crown's appeal in the case of a B.C. woman who faces a fourth trial in the drowning death of 14-year-old Reena Virk more than a decade ago.

A lawyer for Kelly Ellard argued in a video-conference hearing that the high court shouldn't automatically hear the appeal because it does not involve a fundamental point of law.

But Canada's highest court rejected the application and will hear the appeal likely this spring.

Six teenaged girls were convicted in youth court of assault-related charges while Ellard and Warren Glowatski were tried as adults and found guilty of second-degree murder in Virk's November 1997 death.

Ellard's first trial conviction was overturned on appeal and the second case ended in a mistrial.

She was convicted again at a third trial but that conviction was overturned by the B.C. Appeal Court last year and a fourth trial ordered.