A Fort Saskatchewan man charged with second-degree murder in his one-year-old son’s death appeared in court via CCTV Thursday and asked for a prison transfer.
It was the first court appearance for 30-year-old Damien Christopher Starrett.
“His life has been threatened while he has been in custody,” lawyer Rory Ziv said. “Guards are making disparaging remarks.”
Ziv is not Starrett’s defence lawyer and only represented him for this court appearance.
He made the request on behalf of the accused. Starrett wanted to be transferred from the Edmonton Remand Centre to the Fort Saskatchewan facility.
The judge said that decision is not up to him and moved proceedings on.
At 6:43 p.m. Saturday, RCMP and EMS responded to a 911 call of a one-year-old boy who was in medical distress.
Insp. Mike McCauley with the Fort Saskatchewan RCMP said the boy was taken to hospital with serious injuries where he was pronounced dead.
Global News has learned the victim is one-year-old Ares Starrett.
Starrett is also charged with assault involving another child who was present at the time of the incident, RCMP said. McCauley said Starrett is also the father of the other child. McCauley would not release any information about the child but said their injuries were non-life-threatening.
Starrett’s next court appearance is scheduled for Jan. 9.