MEDICINE HAT — The court-ordered psychiatric assessment of a man accused of murdering three members of a southern Alberta family is complete, but lawyers won’t have access to it for at least two weeks.
Jeremy Allan Steinke, 23, along with a 12-year-old girl who cannot be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, has been accused of murdering the girl’s 42-year-old father, her 48-year-old mother, and her eight-year old brother on April 23.
The next day, Steinke and the girl were arrested in Leader, Sask.
Steinke appeared in the Medicine Hat Provincial Court on Thursday.
Crown prosecutor Stephanie Cleary said lawyers will have to wait for the doctor’s official report before they can access Steinke’s assessment.
With about 15 family and friends watching — many wearing the distinct black clothing, makeup and hair associated with goth culture — Steinke was quickly ushered into the courtroom through the prisoner area. Small in stature, with cropped blond hair and a goatee, Steinke kept his head down for most of the short proceeding, only nodding once to someone sitting alone in the front row behind the Crown section of court.
Cleary said that Steinke’s lawyer, Allan Hepner, had recently contacted her about getting disclosure on the case. Hepner, who is from Calgary and was represented by a local lawyer, told Cleary that Steinke’s assessment by a Calgary doctor has been completed, but it will take at least two weeks for the official report to hit the two opposing lawyers’ desks.
The case was put over until June 22.
As Steinke was being taken back into custody, he leaned his head over the Plexiglas exterior of the prisoner box and said something to the court sheriff as he nodded toward his mother, sister and a few other family members sitting in the front row of the defence side of court.
The 12-year-old remains at the Calgary Young Offenders Centre. Her next court date is scheduled for June 19.