The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Confessed murderer James Noel Desmarais was looking for his third lawyer last week after the first two withdrew from his case, according to the Crown attorney. Desmarais, 45, remains in custody in The Pas Correctional Centre, charged with second-degree murder in the death of Raylene Dawn Grant in Flin Flon last fall. Crown attorney Todd Rambow said Desmarais' first two lawyers sought and received permission to bow out of the case. He could not speculate on the lawyers' motivation. 'What happened or didn't happen is protected by solicitor-client confidentiality,' said Rambow. 'They indicate(d) that they're not prepared to act anymore and the judge granted them the order to withdraw.' Rambow said at least one of Desmarais' former lawyers was hired through legal aid. The other was a private lawyer, but it is possible he too was working through legal aid. As of late last week, Rambow said Desmarais had been without a lawyer since around late February or early March. Remanded Making court appearances in Flin Flon and then The Pas, Desmarais has been repeatedly remanded since being arrested and charged. Though Flin Flon RCMP say Desmarais visited the detachment to confess to the Oct. 31 murder, he has not entered a plea in court. Rambow said that while no additional charges are being contemplated at this time, it is possible the count of second-degree murder could change. 'If the evidence led us in that direction, possibly, but that's just speculation at this point,' he said. 'Right now that is the charge based on the evidence that we have.' Rambow said police are still investigating the murder 'to complete the investigative avenues that were obvious at the outset _ for example, DNA.' He could not say when Desmarais may enter a plea as this is difficult to predict in murder cases. 'It's a hard question to answer because it would depend on the unique facts of each case, what the evidence is,' Rambow said. 'And particularly where there's DNA evidence involved, then it can take considerably longer because it takes obviously a lot longer for it to be processed and to have a report (completed).' RCMP have not released additional details of their investigation of the murder, including any autopsy results. Police said they found the body of Grant, 21, in a room at the Royal Hotel after Desmarais told them where she was. RCMP said Desmarais and Grant, both Flin Flon residents at the time of the murder, were known to each other.
