Jeremy Skibicki's pretrial delayed due to complexity, volume of information on 4 murder charges

The pretrial for a Winnipeg man accused of killing four women will bedelayed due to the complexityand the sheer volume of information involved in the case, a Manitoba court heard Thursday.

Jeremy Skibicki is facing four first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Marcedes Myran, Morgan Harris, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified fourth woman, who is being referred to as Mashkode Bizhiki'ikwe, or Buffalo Woman.

The pretrial was scheduled to begin Jan. 13.

But in Court of King's Bench on Thursday,Skibicki's lawyerLeonardTailleurasked fora case management judge to be appointed.That judge would help determinetimelinesand address unique challenges of the case.

Justice James Edmond granted the motion and set the next court date for Feb 9.

Skibicki was brought into the courtroom for Thursday'shearing, dressed in grey sweatpants and a grey T-shirt. His head was shaved and he hada longgoatee beard.

About 10 family members of victims were also in the courtroom, somewearingshirts with pictures ofContois and Myran on them.

Skibicki's case is a direct indictment, meaning there won't be any preliminary hearings where evidence can be tested.

Tailleursaid he had concerns about being ready for pretrial, given the large amount of information the defence team needs to go through.

Rules regarding pretrialssay the defence would need to state its position on each issue atpretrial.

"We're not prepared or in a position to do so," Taillieur said in an email after the hearing.

Earlier this month,Tailleurindicatedthat he had received 10terabytes of information at that point, and there was likely more to come.

Tailleur has said his client intends to plead not guilty on all charges.

Unique case: defence lawyers association

A spokesperson with the Criminal Defence Lawyers Association ofManitoba said while the motion will delay the start of the pretrial, the goal is toensure the case moves along.

"What the case management judge is going to do is try to push the parties to make sure that they are prepared to go to a pretrial at a later date and get this matter setdown, so that they're not losing too much time,"said Chris Gamby, who isa practising lawyer but does not have a role inSkibicki's defence.

"This is a very unique case. I don't remember a time in my time at the bar certainly, and even before that, where we've had anything quite like this in Manitoba," said Gamby, who was called to the bar in 2015.

There's a lot of work that goes into a case before it reaches pretrial, said Gamby. Butgiven the direct indictment, he suspectsSkibicki's lawyers have not had enough time to go through allthe evidence the Crown has handed over, and may not even have allthe information yet.

The case is also unusual in that there arefour victims, Gamby said, and thereforelikely a lot more evidence that needs to be reviewed.

"The volume of witnesses and information that the Crown would have to sort through, and likewise the defence would have to sort through is going to be significant," he said.