Hearing held for Pond Inlet murder case
Tommy Mucpa, 28, accused of killing, Dorcas Erkloo, 51, in 2017
Last week the Nunavut Court of Justice heard a hearing for Tommy Mucpa of Pond Inlet, who faces a second-degree murder charge for the death of Dorcas Erkloo in 2017. (File photo)
The voir dire of a Pond Inlet man got underway in Iqaluit at the Nunavut Court of Justice last week.
Tommy Mucpa, 28, is accused in connection with the 2017 death of Dorcas Erkloo, 51, in the north Baffin community. Police charged Mucpa with second-degree murder in July 2017.
A voir dire is a hearing held before a trial that is used to determine a specific issue, such as the admissibility of evidence at trial. An automatic publication ban applies to voir dires, preventing the publication of any evidence given at the hearing.
Mucpa, a stocky man with short hair, square glasses and a moustache, sat beside his lawyers, Sara Siebert and Julie Bedford, on the first day of the hearing on Monday, Feb. 24. The hearing, which was presided over by Justice Paul Bychok, was scheduled to run for three days and hear testimony from five witnesses, according to the court registry office. The court scheduled a final day of the hearing for March 20.
Mucpa’s trial is scheduled for later this summer: two weeks beginning on August 17, the registry said. The first week of the trial, which will take place in front of a judge, and no jury, will be held in Pond Inlet. The trial will then move to Iqaluit for its second week, according to the court registry.
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