Stephen Nagle waives preliminary hearing for allegedly helping Marissa Shephard

Stephen Nagle waived his right to a preliminary trial on Thursday on the charge of helping Marissa Shephard following the death of Baylie Wylie.

Shephard, 20, of Moncton had been wanted on a Canada-wide warrant for first-degree murder and arson in Wylie's death on Dec. 17. She was arrested in Moncton after being a fugitive for about 10 weeks.

• Marissa Shephard appears in court on 1st-degree murder, arson charges

Nagle has been charged with assisting Shephard, aiding her escape, as well as breaking a previous court order to stay away from KrystalToole,who has also been charged with helpingShephardwhile she was evading the police.

A trial date will be set at a court hearingin April for the charge of being an accessory after the fact.

Nagle did plead guilty for breaching thecourt order to stay away from Toole. Hesigned a no-contact order with Toole in January.

That order was violated on March 1 when Nagle and Toole were arrested with Shephard.

On Thursday, the Crown argued Nagle should spend 30 days in jail for the breach considering his lengthy criminal record. Martin Goguen, the defence lawyer, asked for seven days in jail.

Judge Jolene Richard ordered Nagle to spend 25 days in jail.

Shephard, Tyler Noel and Devin Morningstar have all been charged with first-degree murder in Wylie's death.

Noel gets date for preliminary hearing

Noel also made a brief court appearance on Thursday to set apreliminary hearing date for his first-degree murder charge.

The hearing will be held between May 16 and 20.

Sylvain Pelletier, Noel's lawyer, asked that a trial for three other matters scheduled forMay 24 and 25be postponed.

Amanda Wylie, the mother of the murder victim, was in court on Thursday for the appearances of both Nagle and Noel.

"Some days are harder than others, it depends on the people, like the bigger fish to fry," she said.

"I obviously have a harder time in those proceedings unlike these, what should I say, simpler ones that aren't as hefty charges so it's a lot easier to deal with."

She said she's received a significant amount of support since her son's murder.

"It's just overwhelming, overwhelming support, beautiful stories they're telling me," she said.

"It's very, very nice. It's really warming my heart for real so those kinds of things are helping me better than anything else."